Invisible Hand

This is an excerpt from the 4-volume dictionary of economics, a reference book which aims to define the subject of economics today. 1300 subject entries in the complete work cover the broad themes of economic theory. This extract concentrates on the theory of the invisible hand, an idea central to political economy from de Mandeville to John Stuart Mill and beyond. The origins and development of that powerful concept and its impact on more recent discussions of equilibrium and free market competition are explored in these essayys.