Hello everyone and welcome to ESOB's Global Economy podcast.

My name is Frederick Erickson and today we're going to talk about Adam Smith.

It's 300 years since Sarah Smith was born, and this is a good opportunity

to talk about his work and legacy, and especially what in his thoughts that are relevant for us

today. For most people, Adam Smith was one of the founding fathers of economics who, in the

wealth of nations, deepened the understanding of specialization

and the division of labor, central concepts for understanding why some countries grow rich

and other state poor.

The book also penetrated the economics of the British Empire and revealed the weakness of

mechanolism as a system of economic thought and pulse.

For a long time now, Adam Smith has right to be regarded as one of the leading thinkers of free trade.

But Smith isn't all about economics. In fact, most of his work isn't about economics at all.

At least not what we would call standard economics today.

Like many other 18th century intellectuals, working in the Newtonian spirits of a whole system of thought,

Adam Smith covered many different fields of scholarly work, jurisprudence, virtue, theology, biology, and more.

He attempted to deepen the understanding of how man in society develop.

And in my own view, he did so in many profound ways.

For this conversation, I am joined by two others who share that view of Adam Smith

and who has used his insights and works in original ways.

Matt Ridley and Ross Roberts, two inspiring and thought-provoking writers that I strongly recommend everyone to read.

Starting with Matt, he is an award-winning zoologist who has authored several books about the

evolution of species, did you know, virtue, technology, innovation, progress, the economy

...