Adam Smith
Adam Smith founded modern economics with The Wealth of Nations, and is routinely quoted by people who have not noticed that he distrusted merchants. Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife in 1723, and baptised months after his father's death, he entered Glasgow University at fourteen under Francis Hutcheson and then spent six unhappy years at Balliol College, Oxford, whose professors he said had given up even the pretence of teaching. He became professor of logic and then of moral philosophy at Glasgow in 1751. His first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, grounds morality in sympathy — the human capacity to imagine another's feelings and to judge our own conduct through an impartial spectator. He regarded it as his better work and revised it throughout his life. He resigned in 1764 to tutor the young Duke of Buccleuch on a European tour for a life pension, meeting Voltaire, Quesnay and the physiocrats in Paris. He then spent about a decade writing at Kirkcaldy. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations appeared in March 1776. It opens with a pin factory to demonstrate that the division of labour is the source of productivity, argues that specialisation is limited by the extent of the market, and describes how self-interest under competition can serve the general good — the invisible hand, a phrase he uses just once in the book. He attacked mercantilism, colonial monopolies, the East India Company and guilds, and warned that businessmen seldom meet without conspiring against the public. He supported public education, progressive taxation and regulation of banking. He became a customs commissioner and died in 1790, having had most of his manuscripts burned.
- Lived: 1723 CE – 1790 CE
- Nationality: British
- Roles: economist, philosopher
