This book examines at a static level how Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776) was
introduced into China at the turn of the twentieth century. In a dynamic socio-economic context
Yan Fu (1854-1921) had The Wealth of Nations in mind as a prescription for China's Wealth and
Power. This book aims answer the question of whether The Wealth of Nations a book which
advocates laissez-faire free trade and minimum governance helpful for China with very
different economic conditions and modes of thought to the West and goes on to reexamine Yan
Fu's economic ideas through a modern economics perspective.
