Adam Smith

Lore & Background

Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. His father, a senior solicitor and customs comptroller, died two months before Smith's birth. Smith was baptised on 5 June 1723, a date often treated as his birth date. He attended the Burgh School of Kirkcaldy from 1729 to 1737, studying Latin, mathematics, history, and writing. At age 14, he entered the University of Glasgow, studying moral philosophy under Francis Hutcheson, where he developed a passion for reason, civilian liberties, and freedom of speech. In 1740, he was awarded a Snell Exhibition to study at Balliol College, Oxford, but found the teaching there intellectually stifling; he taught himself by reading at the Bodleian Library and left in 1746 before his scholarship ended, suffering from shaking fits possibly due to a nervous breakdown.

Smith began delivering public lectures in 1748 at the University of Edinburgh, sponsored by the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, on rhetoric, belles-lettres, and 'the progress of opulence.' In 1750, he met David Hume, with whom he shared close intellectual and personal bonds. Smith earned a professorship at Glasgow in 1751, teaching logic, and in 1752 became a member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. The following year, he became head of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, a role he held for 13 years, which he called the happiest and most honorable period of his life. He published The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, based on his Glasgow lectures, exploring how human morality depends on mutual sympathy. In 1762, Glasgow conferred on him the title of Doctor of Laws. In 1763, he accepted a tutoring position for the Duke of Buccleuch, arranged by Charles Townshend, and resigned his professorship in 1764.

Reader's Guide

Adam Smith's significance lies in his foundational role in classical free-market economic theory, laid out in The Wealth of Nations (1776). In response to mercantilism—the policy of safeguarding national markets through import reduction and export augmentation—Smith argued that rational self-interest and competition could lead to economic prosperity. He developed the concept of division of labour and expounded the concept of absolute advantage. Smith refused to explain wealth and power distribution in terms of divine will, instead appealing to natural, political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and technological factors and their interactions. His work is regarded as the precursor to modern academic economics. Smith was controversial in his day, and his approach and writing style were satirised by writers such as Horace Walpole. His legacy endures as the father of economics and capitalism, with his ideas continuing to shape economic policy and thought.

Did You Know?

• Smith was abducted by Romani at age three and later released when others went to rescue him.
• At Oxford, officials confiscated his copy of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature and punished him severely for reading it.
• Smith defined 'mutual sympathy' as the basis of moral sentiments, a concept akin to modern empathy.
• He was one of the only students to benefit from scholarships set up by John Snell at Oxford.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Adam Smith (16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish-born economist and philosopher, widely considered the "father of modern economics"." — Adam Smith "The Union was a measure from which infinite Good has been derived to this country." — Adam Smith "Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind." — Adam Smith "Every man is, no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care; and as he is fitter to take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit and right that it should be so." — Adam Smith