Introduction
Adam Smith lived from 1723 to 1790 and is widely regarded as the father of economics.  He was a Scottish moral philosopher and taught at the University of Glasgow.  His masterpiece, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was first published in 1776.  This book is considered a seminal work in the field of Economics.

Markets and Specialization
The ability to specialize is seriously constrained by the availability of market.  A woman who sets up a law firm in a tiny Kentucky town would not to be able to support herself by specializing in a particular form of law for which the town provided little demand.  She would have to be a generalist who could find sufficient customers among the available market to make a living.  In the last 30 years, substantial markets have opened up around the world, offering great opportunity for many kinds of goods.  Many Americans advocate a protectionist posture with a hope of protecting American jobs.  This posture ignores the benefit of wider markets.   A bigger market always means more opportunity for companies that have something unique to sell.  Protectionism limits the ability of US businesses to serve these global customers because of barriers erected against foreign-made commodities.

My company makes a highly engineered component needed in modern industrial equipment.  It replaces a much cheaper but less functional component which has become a commodity.   Some people complain that global markets hurt local businesses because of cheaper labor.  Adam Smith observes that varying labor costs and resources have always played a part in where products are made.  The fact that we have a highly differentiated product and can sell into a global market makes it possible for us to build our products in the United States.  If we were trying to compete for the commodity business, our factory would be nothing but an empty building.

I did most of my reading in The Wealth of Nations using a free audio book from LearnOutLoud.com.  The free audio edition by Michael Edwards is very well done and made the book much more approachable.