Themes

Through a tour of locations around the world that illustrate the points Smith made in The Wealth of Nations, this project brings together historians, economists, curators, and the public to reconsider the legacies of slavery, empire, free trade, and revolution in the making of the modern economy.

A male Anglo-Indian being washed, dressed and attended by five Indian servants. Coloured lithograph by J. Bouvier, 1842, after W. Tayler. More: Original public domain image from Wellcome Collection

Free Trade

In 1776, the world was more connected than it had ever been — and more unequal. It was the first truly global economy, and it produced extraordinary wealth. It also produced extraordinary suffering.
Toussaint Louverture

Slavery & empire

Over the entire history of the transatlantic slave trade, approximately 12.5 million people were transported on European ships, and at least two million died on the crossing.
Boston Tea Party showing large ship and smaller one carrying tea

Revolutions

Ideas, in 1776, travelled on the same ships as sugar and tobacco. The book that Adam Smith wrote holed up in his childhood home in a small coastal town in Fife was, within a decade, shaping constitutions on the other side of the world.