Wealth of Nations

First published in 1776, the Wealth of Nations (or, more accurately, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations) by Adam Smith is the original capitalist manifesto.

Smith's introduction states:

The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations.

According therefore, as this produce, or what is purchased with it, bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it, the nation will be better or worse supplied with all the necessaries and conveniencies for which it has occasion.