Q2: Scotsman Adam Smith published Wealth of Nations in March 1776, three months before the American colonies declared independence from his monarch, King George III.
The book represented a key departure from orthodoxy, as Smith proposed that self-interest and the forces of supply and demand, rather than regulation, should determine economic activity. It set the stage for the prevailing economic school of thought throughout the industrial revolution, and beyond.
Do you support Smith's view that an "invisible hand" of incentives created in a free market system direct self-interested people to act in the public interest, even if that is not something they intended? (Image: 2017 replica of first locomotive (b 1802), Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England via Blists Hall Victorian Town)
