Adam Smith, the leading figure in the classical school of economics and prominent in the Scottish Enlightenment, is one of the few economists to be credited with founding economics. In his compendious work, The Wealth of Nations, he integrated the information and ideas provided by historical and contemporary authors explain how an economy operates and how it can grow. He set out a system of natural liberty for an economy, justified free trade and inspired subsequent value and distribution theories. Both socialist and libertarian economists look to him as a precursor.