Austria ended torture interrogation on January 2. Thomas Paine published "Common Sense" advocating American independence on January 10. Henry Knox arrived in Massachusetts to transport British artillery from Fort Ticonderoga. Adam Smith published "The Wealth of Nations" on March 9
Smith published "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776 to describe industrialized capitalism. Book challenged mercantilism's fixed wealth theory and tariff-based trade. Smith believed self-interest leads to societal benefit through market mechanism
Classical economics emerged in 18th-19th centuries, with Adam Smith as progenitor. Spanish scholastics and French physiocrats made earlier contributions. Theory developed after birth of western capitalism and Industrial Revolution
Adam Smith introduced the concept in "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759). It describes unseen forces that move free market economy. Individual self-interest leads to society's best interests
Absolute advantage is producing goods more efficiently than competitors. Adam Smith first described it in 1776's The Wealth of Nations. Smith argued nations could gain simultaneously through free trade
Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland in 1723 to a lawyer father. Studied at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford. Met David Hume in 1750, becoming close friends