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Adam Smith(1723—1790):A biographical Sketch
Adam Smith was born in 1723 in the small seaport of Kirkcaldy,County Fife, Scotland.The man who was to become the champion of free trade was,ironically,the son of a customs collector.His father having died a few months before his birth,Smith was brought up by his mother.At the age of four,he was kidnapped by a band of passing gypsies.His captivity was,however,shortlived.When pursued by Smith’s uncle a few hours later,the gypsies abandoned young Adam by the side of the road.
From his earliest days,Smith distinguished himself as a student.He displayed periods of absent-mindedness as a child,a characteristic that gave him a certain amount of notoriety later in life.At the age of 14,he entered the University of Glasgow.In 1740,he was awarded the scholarship to study at Oxford University and spent the next six years of his life there.
Smith went back to Scotland where he lectured on English literature at Edinburgh University.There he began his friendship with the philosopher David Hume(1711—1776).
In 1751,Smith returned to Glasgow University where he became professor of logic and,later,professor of moral philosophy.In 1759,he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments .The basic theme of this work was that there existed a social order of natural harmonies in which each person,when left to pursue their own interests,not only attained their best advantages,but also unconsciously promoted the common good.(Smith would go on to develop this theme more fully in The Wealth of Nations .)
His The Theory of Moral Sentiments was an immediate success.Smith’s reputation as a philosopher became established,with many students wishing to learn from him.One person in particular was most taken by Smith’s writing and this was Charles Townshend,later to become the Chancellor of the Exchequer(the English equivalent to Treasurer).Townshend required the services of a tutor for his stepson,the Duke of Buccleuch,and he approached Smith with the offer of£300 a year plus expenses and pension of£300 for life.
Smith accepted the proposal and resigned his professorship to accompany the Duck and his younger brother to Europe on what was popularly called the Grand Tour.In France,he would meet the philosopher Voltaire and the leading Physiocrats,Quesnay and Turgot.In 1764,Smith began to work on a treatise of political economy,a subject upon which he had lectured at Glasgow and discussed with his friend,David Hume.The book was to be called An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ,but it would be another 12 years before it was finished.
In 1766,following the death of the Duke’s younger brother,the Tour came to an abrupt end and Smith returned to Kirkcaldy,taking the lessons learned on his travels with him.There he spent the better part of the next ten years working on his masterpiece.
The Wealth of Nations won immediate acclaim.It was encyclopedic.Not only did it cover the then current knowledge of political economy,but it was to provide the starting point for every major scholarly work on the subject for the next 75 years!
In 1778,just two years after The Wealth of Nations was published,Smith was appointed Commissioner of Customs for Edinburgh.There he lived with his mother until his death in 1790.Again,it is one of the great ironies that the man who spent so much of his life promoting free trade should have ended his days administering the collection of taxes on imports!
As a man,Adam Smith was not regarded as handsome.He had a large nose,bulging eyes and protruding lower lip.Smith suffered a nervous affliction;his head shook and he had a stumbling manner of speech.He remained a bachelor throughout his life.“I am a beau in nothing but my books”was the way he described his lack of appeal to the opposite sex.Smith was also notoriously absent-minded.Whilst strolling in his Kirkcaldy garden one Sunday morning clad in his dressing-gown and deep in concentration,he is said to have taken a wrong turn and walked some 25 kilometers along the road to Dunfermline before his thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of church bells!