The following chapter groups together excerpts from major economic, literary, and philosophical sources that provide a background to “The Wealth of Nations.” Smith was familiar with all of these texts, and they provide the context for a better understanding of his work, since some ideas—on human natureNature, benevolenceBenevolence, self-interestSelf-interest, but also on a theory of prices or the role of agriculture—are later taken up in “The Wealth of Nations.” Occasionally Smith’s work echoes those major texts to the point of near-verbatim quotations, but since his contemporary readers knew most of his sources well Smith positions himself as the more systematic and often as the more precise thinker. The excerpts from these five major works range from the Earl of Shaftesbury’sShaftesbury, Earl of early “Characteristics” from the early eighteenth century to Steuart’sSteuart, J. “An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy” from 1767. They include philosophical texts by Shaftesbury and HumeHume, D., Defoe’sDefoe, D. economic treatise based on his empirical observations made while travelling through Britain, and Steuart’s economic treatise that is often seen as a precursor to Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations.” Seen together, these excerpts invite the reader to position Smith’s seminal work in the context of eighteenth-century discourse on philosophy, economics, and literature.