Adam Smith

He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. (Smith, 1869, p. 28)

The above quote, taken from book four of Adam Smith's seminal work The Wealth of Nations, introduced the world to one of the most important concepts in modern economics, namely, the notion of an invisible hand guiding the market. Though the term "invisible hand" is mentioned only this one time in the entirety of Smith's work, it has become...
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