250 Years of The Wealth of Nations: Enlightenment Europe and the Making of Economic and Social Civilisation

Overview

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776), one of the defining intellectual landmarks of Enlightenment Europe. This anniversary also provides the occasion for the launch of “The Wealth of Nations” international research and publication project, an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to exploring the development of modern intellectual life from the Enlightenment to the present through history, philosophy, literature, ethics, economic thought and culture.

The Potsdam gathering serves both as a commemoration and a founding moment. It inaugurates a long-term project of research, publication and public dialogue that will examine how ideas of society, culture, morality and economic life have been articulated and transformed across Europe and the transatlantic world. At a time when questions of wealth, governance, knowledge and social order are being fundamentally re-examined, “The Wealth of Nations” forms part of a broader intellectual endeavour to understand the principles upon which civilisation might flourish.

Potsdam, between 1740 and 1780, offers a distinguished historical and cultural setting in which these developments may be explored. As a centre of Prussian governance and cultural patronage under Frederick the Great, the city became a focal point of intellectual ambition, artistic cultivation and institutional innovation. Literature, philosophy, music, architecture and historical inquiry flourished alongside new approaches to public administration and civic life, creating an environment in which questions of authority, culture, prosperity and human flourishing were pursued with exceptional vigour and sophistication.

Bringing together history, literature, philosophy, political economy and the arts, the programme reflects on the making of European modernity as a complex and contested intellectual process. It explores the dialogues between different European Enlightenment traditions, considering how ideas of civilisation, commerce, governance, culture and progress were articulated, debated and reimagined. In doing so, it invites a renewed reflection on the intellectual inheritance of these traditions and their continuing significance for contemporary understandings of Europe, public life and the enduring relationship between economic prosperity, cultural achievement and the cultivation of a civilised society.