He was influenced particulary by a head of Physiokratic school whose work he much respected. He became famous for his influential book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations which was written in 1776. In this book he proclaimed the obvious and simple system of natural liberty. The emphasis on sympathy as a fundamental human motive presented in The Theory of Moral Sentiments turned into the key-role of self interest in his second work. Shortly before his death he had destroyed almost all of his manuscripts. After his death in 1795 was published his work Essays on Philosophical Subjects taht contain what would probably have been his latter treatise.

By publishing his work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations he founded the science of political economy. It was so significant for the modern world that it has been considered as one of the most important book ever written. It consists of five books:
Book 1 Improvement in Productive Powers of Labout
Book 2 Nature, Accumulation and Employment of Stock
Book 3 Progress of Opulance of Different Nations
Book 4 Sytems of Political Economy
Book 5 Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

Its basic doctrine was that the only source of nation´s wealth is labour. He declared that there can be no production without labour. He held that the true wealth of nation did not lie in the gold but in the achievement of an abundance of the necessities of life. He also warned that intervention by state is in this process unnecessary and needless. Although he had some objections to capitalism he considered it to be the best possible system. Some of classicals believed that the population was growing so fastly that there would not be enough resources available. They argued that government should have not intervene to try to correct this because it would just make the things worse. This approach is called ´laissez-faire´ what describes an economic system where the government intervenes as little as possible and leaves the private sector to organise most economic activity through market. Classicals believed that free markets were the best organizers of economic activity.


John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

He was not only Britain´s most significant twentieth-century economist and statesman, but also a journalist, art collector and bibliophile. The group of Keynesian economists was named after him and he is considered to be one of the greatest economists ever.