What is Smith's concept of freedom? What does it mean? What are its limits?

Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) was a Scottish economist. In 1776, he published The Wealth of Nations, which became the foundation of modern economics.

He focused on understanding how people can freely make a living. In 1764, at the age of forty, he went on a tour of France that enabled him to collect evidence on the fiscal problems of the French most powerful monarchy. He grasped the concept that people prosper when they can freely choose the terms of their work and trade freely protected by the rule of just laws.

For Adam Smith liberty meant not only freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but freedom to earn a living, freedom from excessive government regulations and the freedom to own and create a new business.

Adam Smith did not foresee the development of huge corporate monopolies. He did not imagine the brutal working and living conditions suffered by masses of men, women and children.