Text 4
Adam Smith, the Scottish professor of moral philosophy, was thrilled by his recognition of order in the economic system. His book, the Wealth of Nations (1776), is the germinal book in the field of economics which earned him the title "the father of economics".
In Smith’s view, a nation’s wealth was dependent upon production, not agriculture alone. How much it produced, he believed, depended upon how well it combined labor and the other factors of production. The more efficient the combination, the greater the output, and the greater the nation’s wealth.
The essence of Smith’s economic philosophy was his belief that an economy would work best if left to function on its own without government regulation. In those circumstances, self-interest would lead business firms to produce only those products that consumers wanted, and to produce them at the lowest possible cost. They would do this, not as a means of bene
A. An argument against a popular belief.
B. An assumption of a false theory.
C. An explanation of a theory.
D. An account of a phenomenon.
我来回答:
