In 1776 probably the most influential book in the history of economics, The Wealth of Nations, was published in London. Its author, the Scotsman Adam Smith spent most of the previous three years in London debating the book's chapters with friends and refining it for publication.
Smith stayed during this time mainly at 27 Suffolk Street, off Pall Mall East. He is known to have frequented the British Coffee-house in Cockspur St, and to have been a member (along with figures such as Samuel Johnson. Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke and Edward Gibbon) of The Club which met at the Turk's Head in Gerrard Street.