Adam Smith is often referred to as the father of free market economics due to the publication of his 1776 book, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. But many readers do not realize that Smith, by training, was a moral philosopher. In fact, his work in free market economics stems from his beliefs about morality.

In the opening chapter of The Wealth of Nations, Smith paints a picture of the abysmal realities facing individuals at the end of the 18th century. Smith writes, for example, that some nations “are so miserably poor, that, from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts.” In other words, poverty was so great that some concluded that suicide or infanticide were their only options. Smith believed this situation was in itself a moral evil.