Smith claimed that the keys to wealth are productive men, productive stock, and productive land. He also believed that the wealth of a nation consists in the well being of the mass of ordinary citizens. "Smith tried to convince people that the wealth of a nation would be promoted with vastly greater effectiveness by the obvious and simple system of natural liberty than by national planning of the mercantilist sort" (Smith 391). .
"He stated that the role of government is to protect the land from foreign invasion, enforce contracts and maintain a physical and legal infrastructure that promotes commerce and investment"(Smith 451). Smith believed that government produces nothing and therefore the expenses of government reduce the wealth of a nation. Smith said, "the best contribution governments can make to the wealth of nations and to the progress of human society is to leave individuals free to follow their natural prosperity of make changes" (Smith 453). Smith had a very negative view towards government and said, "There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of people" (Kilcullen 3). .
Smith also believed that taxes should be kept at a minimum in order to increase the wealth of a nation. Smith was also a proponent of free trade; he thought that only through free trade could the advantages inherent in different lands be harnessed to increase the wealth of nations. He was against unions, which he thought reduced the wealth of a nation by reducing productivity. Smith thought that the advances in productivity have been due to increased specialization of labour. For Smith specialization was the key to human material well being.
Smith's belief was that a society composed of individuals acting in pursuit of their own interests would result in a stable, free, and more prosperous society than one regimented and planned by the state.