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1776: �The Ideas that Made the Modern World

University of Notre Dame | Spring 2026

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Professor of Political Science

James R. Otteson, John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics

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St. Thomas Aquinas’s �Prayer before Study

Creator of all things,�true Source of light and wisdom,�lofty origin of all being,�graciously let a ray of Your brilliance�penetrate into the darkness of my understanding�and take from me the double darkness�in which I have been born,�an obscurity of both sin and ignorance.�Give me a sharp sense of understanding,�a retentive memory,�and the ability to grasp things correctly and fundamentally.�Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,�and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.�Point out the beginning,�direct the progress,�and help in completion;�through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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What is this course?�What is it for?�What should I expect?

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Adam Smith (1723–1790)

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Human Population Growth

10,000 bc: ~4 million (relatively consistent for previous ~100,000 years)

ad 1: 232 million (0.04% annually)

2026: 8.3 billion (~36x since ad 1; 0.2% annually [5x])

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Data sources: Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank (2025); Bolt and van Zanden – Maddison Project Database 2023; MaddisonDatabase 2010.

Note: Data expressed in international-$ at 2021 prices.

Growth in Wealth

AD 1: $247 bn ($1,100/year/capita)

2024: $173 tn ($21,268/year/capita) (~700x)

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Population

AD 1: 232 million

2024: 8.1 billion (35x)

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Per-Capita Wealth Growth

  • 1820: $1,500/year
  • 2024: $21,268/year (~14x)

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Population Change

  • 1820: 1.0 billion
  • 2024: 8.1 billion (~8x)

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To summarize:

Questions:

  1. What happened?!
  2. Why did things increase so dramatically, and so recently, in human history?
  3. But . . . is wealth the only thing that matters in life?

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AD 1

1820

2024

Change

Population

232 m

1.0 bn

8.1 bn

~34x

(3,391%)

Total Wealth

$247 bn

$1.62 tn (0.1% annually)

$173 tn (2.4% ann. [24x])

~700x

(69,941%)

Per Capita Wealth

$1,100

$1,500

(0.02% annually)

$21,268 (1.33% annually [65x])

~19x

(1,834%)

Things Changed Bigly

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Looking Ahead:

  1. Something dramatic happened near the end of the 18C that led to a significant, and historically unprecedented, increase in material prosperity. What could it be?
  2. The Economist (18 Dec. 2025): Adam Smith’s reputation as the “father of economics,” and the fame, even veneration, of his 1776 Wealth of Nations, are “overstated.” For three reasons:
    1. Smith was “a flowery writer” who employed “long, winding sentences.”
    2. Smith got some things wrong, e.g., the “labour theory of value,” without which “there could have been no [Karl] Marx.”
    3. Smith built on the ideas of others.
  3. What we will do, and what I hope to demonstrate.

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Thank you!��We’ll see you at 7 pm next Tuesday, January 20.

University of Notre Dame | Spring 2026

Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Professor of Political Science

James R. Otteson, John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of Business Ethics