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{{Short description|Scottish economist and philosopher (1723–1790)}}
{{About|the Scottish economist and philosopher|other people named Adam Smith}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| image              = File:Adam Smith The Muir portrait.jpg
| caption            = Posthumous ''Muir portrait'', {{circa|1800}}
| alt                = Painting of Smith
| name               = Adam Smith
| honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FRSE|FRSA}}
| signature          = Adam Smith signature 1783.svg
| baptised           = {{OldStyleDateNY|16 June|5 June}} 1723<ref name="baptism" />
| birth_place        = [[Kirkcaldy]], [[Fife]], Scotland
| death_date         = {{death date and age|df=yes|1790|7|17|1723|6|16}}
| death_place        = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| resting_place      = [[Canongate Kirkyard]]
| school_tradition   =
| region             = [[Western philosophy]]
| alma_mater         = {{plainlist|
* [[University of Glasgow]]
* [[Balliol College, Oxford]]}}
| notable_works      = {{plainlist|
* ''[[The Theory of Moral Sentiments]]'' (1759)
* ''[[The Wealth of Nations]]'' (1776)
}}
| main_interests     = [[Political philosophy]], ethics, economics
| notable_ideas      = {{plainlist|
* [[Classical economics]]
* [[Free market]]
* [[Division of labour]]
* [[Absolute advantage]]
* [[Invisible hand]]
}}
|era                 = [[Early modern period]]}}
'''Adam Smith''' (baptised {{OldStyleDateNY|16 June |5 June}} 1723<ref name="baptism">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/smith_adam.shtml|title=Adam Smith (1723–1790)|website=BBC|quote=Adam Smith's exact date of birth is unknown, but he was baptised on 5 June 1723.|access-date=20 December 2019|archive-date=15 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315183615/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/smith_adam.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish{{Efn|Smith was described as a [[North Britain|North Briton]] and Scot.<ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Gwydion M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hh-3AAAAIAAJ|title=Adam Smith, Wealth Without Nations|date=2000|publisher=Athol Books|isbn=978-0850340846|location=London|pages=59|language=en|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=19 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719200518/https://books.google.com/books?id=Hh-3AAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>|name=note|group=}} economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of [[political economy]] and key figure during the [[Scottish Enlightenment]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/enlightenment/features_enlightenment_enlightenment.shtml|title=BBC – History – Scottish History|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=20 December 2019|archive-date=10 April 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010410205432/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/enlightenment/features_enlightenment_enlightenment.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> Seen by many as the "father of economics"<ref name="AS1">—{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Vivienne |date=5 December 2008 |title=Mere Inventions of the Imagination': A Survey of Recent Literature on Adam Smith |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/economics-and-philosophy/article/mere-inventions-of-the-imagination-a-survey-of-recent-literature-on-adam-smith/E82D64B07E411991C03510FC1BD3E040 |journal=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=281–312 |doi=10.1017/S0266267100004521 |s2cid=145093382 |access-date=20 July 2020 |archive-date=21 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200721213848/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/economics-and-philosophy/article/mere-inventions-of-the-imagination-a-survey-of-recent-literature-on-adam-smith/E82D64B07E411991C03510FC1BD3E040 |url-status=live  | issn=0266-2671 |url-access=subscription }}<br />—{{cite book |last=Berry |first=Christopher J. |date=2018 |title=Adam Smith Very Short Introductions Series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=irRwDwAAQBAJ&q=Adam+Smith++Father+of+economics |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=101 |isbn=978-0198784456 |access-date=3 October 2020 |archive-date=19 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719200529/https://books.google.com/books?id=irRwDwAAQBAJ&q=Adam+Smith++Father+of+economics |url-status=live }}<br />—{{cite web|url=https://www.investopedia.com/updates/adam-smith-economics/|title=Adam Smith: The Father of Economics|last=Sharma|first=Rakesh|website=Investopedia|access-date=20 February 2019|archive-date=10 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160910173425/https://www.investopedia.com/updates/adam-smith-economics/|url-status=live}}</ref> or the "father of [[capitalism]]",<ref name="AS2">—{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvsfb|title=Adam Smith: Father of Capitalism|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=20 February 2019|archive-date=20 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120102114/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csvsfb|url-status=live}}<br />—{{cite journal |last1=Bassiry |first1=G. R. |last2= Jones|first2=Marc |date=1993 |title=Adam Smith and the ethics of contemporary capitalism |journal=[[Journal of Business Ethics]] |volume= 12 |issue=1026 |pages=621–627 |doi= 10.1007/BF01845899|s2cid=51746709 }}<br />—{{cite journal |last1=Newbert |first1=Scott L.|date=30 November 2017 |title=Lessons on social enterprise from the father of capitalism: A dialectical analysis of Adam Smith |journal=[[Academy of Management Journal]] |volume=2016 |issue=1 |page=12046|doi=10.5465/ambpp.2016.12046abstract |issn=2151-6561}}<br />—{{cite book |last=Rasmussen |first=Dennis C. |year=2017 |title=The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=12 |isbn=978-1400888467}}</ref> he is primarily known for two classic works: ''[[The Theory of Moral Sentiments]]'' (1759) and ''[[The Wealth of Nations|An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]]'' (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as ''The Wealth of Nations'', is regarded as his ''[[magnum opus]]'', marking the inception of modern economic scholarship as a comprehensive system and an academic discipline. Smith refuses to explain the distribution of wealth and power in terms of [[divine will]] and instead appeals to natural, political, social, economic, legal, environmental and technological factors, as well as the interactions among them. The work is notable for its contribution to economic theory, particularly in its exposition of concept of [[absolute advantage]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/what-is-absolute-advantage/|title=Absolute Advantage – Ability to Produce More than Anyone Else|website=Corporate Finance Institute|language=en-US|access-date=20 February 2019|archive-date=20 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220181649/https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/what-is-absolute-advantage/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Born in [[Kirkcaldy]], Fife, Smith studied [[social philosophy]] at the [[University of Glasgow]] and at the [[University of Oxford]], where he was one of the first students to benefit from scholarships set up by [[John Snell]]. Following his graduation, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at the [[University of Edinburgh]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/s/adamsmith.html|title=Adam Smith: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland|website=www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=22 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722094727/https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/s/adamsmith.html|url-status=live}}</ref> that met with acclaim. This led to a collaboration with [[David Hume]] during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow, where he taught moral philosophy. During this period, he wrote and published ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments''. Subsequently, he assumed a tutoring position that facilitated travel throughout Europe, where he encountered intellectual figures of his era.

In response to the prevailing policy of safeguarding national markets and merchants through the reduction of imports and the augmentation of exports, a practice that came to be known as [[mercantilism]], Smith laid the foundational principles of classical [[free market|free-market]] economic theory. ''The Wealth of Nations'' was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he developed the concept of [[Division of labour#Adam Smith|division of labour]] and expounded upon how [[Rational egoism|rational self-interest]] and competition can lead to economic prosperity. Smith was controversial in his day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by writers such as [[Horace Walpole]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=John |first1=McMurray |title=Capitalism's 'Founding Father' Often Quoted, Frequently Misconstrued |url=https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/capitalisms-founding-father-often-quoted-frequently-misconstrued/ |newspaper=Investor's Business Daily |date=19 March 2017 |access-date=31 May 2019 |archive-date=19 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719200521/https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/capitalisms-founding-father-often-quoted-frequently-misconstrued/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:Adam Smith's mother.JPG|thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait of Smith's mother, Margaret Douglas]]
Adam Smith was born in [[Kirkcaldy]], in [[Fife]], Scotland. His father, Adam Smith senior, was a Scottish [[Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet|Writer to the Signet]] (senior [[Scots law#Legal profession|solicitor]]), [[Advocate#Scotland|advocate]] and [[Prosecutor#Scotland|prosecutor]] (judge advocate) and also served as [[comptroller]] of the customs in Kirkcaldy.<ref name="rae 1895 1">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=1}}</ref> Smith's mother was born Margaret Douglas, daughter of the landed Robert Douglas of Strathendry, also in Fife; she married Smith's father in 1720. Two months before Smith was born, his father died, leaving his mother a widow.<ref>{{harvnb|Bussing-Burks|2003|pp=38–39}}</ref> The date of Smith's baptism into the [[Church of Scotland]] at Kirkcaldy was 5 June 1723<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=12}}</ref> and this has often been treated as if it were also his date of birth,<ref name="rae 1895 1"/> which is unknown.

Although few events in Smith's early childhood are known, the Scottish journalist [[John Rae (biographer)|John Rae]], a biographer of Smith, recorded that Smith was abducted by [[Romani people|Romani]] at the age of three and released when others went to rescue him.{{efn|In ''Life of Adam Smith'', Rae writes: "In his fourth year, while on a visit to his grandfather's house at Strathendry on the banks of the Leven, [Smith] was stolen by a passing band of gypsies, and for a time could not be found. But presently a gentleman arrived who had met a Romani woman a few miles down the road carrying a child that was crying piteously. Scouts were immediately dispatched in the direction indicated, and they came upon the woman in Leslie wood. As soon as she saw them she threw her burden down and escaped, and the child was brought back to his mother. [Smith] would have made, I fear, a poor gypsy."<ref name="rae 1895 5" />}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/placename/?id=1451|title=Fife Place-name Data :: Strathenry|website=fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk|access-date=11 November 2020|archive-date=19 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719200533/https://fife-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/placename/?id=1451|url-status=live}}</ref> Smith was close to his mother, who probably encouraged him to pursue his scholarly ambitions.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 39">{{harvnb|Bussing-Burks|2003|p=39}}</ref> He attended the [[Burgh School of Kirkcaldy]]—characterised by Rae as "one of the best secondary schools of Scotland at that period"<ref name="rae 1895 5">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=5}}</ref>—from 1729 to 1737, he learned [[Latin]], mathematics, history and writing.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 39"/>

===Formal education===

Smith entered the [[University of Glasgow]] at age 14 and studied [[moral philosophy]] under [[Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]].<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 39"/> Here he developed his passion for the philosophical concepts of [[reason]], civilian [[liberty|liberties]] and the [[freedom of speech]]. In 1740 he was the graduate scholar presented to undertake postgraduate studies at the [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]] of the [[University of Oxford]], under the [[Snell Exhibition]].<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=22}}</ref>

Smith considered the teaching at Glasgow to be far superior to that at Oxford, which he found intellectually stifling.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 41">{{harvnb|Bussing-Burks|2003|p=41}}</ref> In Book V, Chapter II of ''The Wealth of Nations'', he wrote: "In the University of Oxford, the greater part of the public professors have, for these many years, given up altogether even the pretence of teaching." Smith is also reported to have complained to friends that Oxford officials once discovered him reading a copy of David Hume's ''[[A Treatise of Human Nature]]'', and they subsequently confiscated his book and punished him severely for reading it.<ref name="rae 1895 5" /><ref name="rae 1895 24">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=24}}</ref><ref name="Buchholz 1999 12">{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=12}}</ref> According to William Robert Scott, "The Oxford of [Smith's] time gave little if any help towards what was to be his lifework."<ref>{{cite book |title=Introductory Economics |publisher=New Age Publishers |isbn=8122418309 |page=4|year= 2006 }}</ref> Nevertheless, he took the opportunity while at Oxford to teach himself several subjects by reading many books from the shelves of the large [[Bodleian Library]].<ref name="rae 1895 22">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=22}}</ref> When Smith was not studying on his own, his time at Oxford was not a happy one, according to his letters.<ref name="rae 1895 24–25">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|pp=24–25}}</ref> Near the end of his time there, he began suffering from shaking fits, probably the symptoms of a nervous breakdown.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 42">{{harvnb|Bussing-Burks|2003|p=42}}</ref> He left Oxford in 1746, before his scholarship ended.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 42" /><ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=29}}</ref>

In Book V of ''The Wealth of Nations'', Smith comments on the low quality of instruction and the meager intellectual activity at [[List of universities in England|English universities]], when compared to their Scottish counterparts. He attributes this both to the rich endowments of the colleges at Oxford and the [[University of Cambridge]], which made the income of professors independent of their ability to attract students, and to the fact that distinguished [[Intellectual#Man of Letters|men of letters]] could make an even more comfortable living as ministers of the [[Church of England]].<ref name="Buchholz 1999 12" />

===Teaching career===
Smith began delivering public lectures in 1748 at the [[University of Edinburgh]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.biography.com/scholar/adam-smith|title=Adam Smith|website=Biography|language=en-us|access-date=30 July 2019|archive-date=19 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719200521/https://www.biography.com/scholar/adam-smith|url-status=live}}</ref> sponsored by the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh under the patronage of [[Henry Home, Lord Kames|Lord Kames]].<ref name="rae 1895 30">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=30}}</ref> His lecture topics included [[rhetoric]] and ''[[belles-lettres]]'',<ref>Smith, A. ([1762] 1985). ''Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres'' [1762]. vol. IV of the Glasgow Edition of the ''Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith'' (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1984). Retrieved 16 February 2012</ref> and later the subject of "the progress of opulence". On this latter topic, he first expounded his economic philosophy of "the obvious and simple system of [[Natural and legal rights|natural liberty]]". While Smith was not adept at [[public speaking]], his lectures met with success.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 43">{{harvnb|Bussing-Burks|2003|p=43}}</ref>

In 1750 Smith met the philosopher David Hume, who was his senior by more than a decade. In their writings covering history, politics, philosophy, economics, and religion, Smith and Hume shared closer intellectual and personal bonds than with other important figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Smith, Adam (bap. 1723, d. 1790) |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of National Biography]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=September 2004 |author=Winch, Donald}}</ref>

In 1751 Smith earned a professorship at Glasgow teaching [[logic]] courses, and in 1752, he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, having been introduced to the society by [[Henry Home, Lord Kames]]. When the [[Professor of Moral Philosophy (Glasgow)|head of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow]] died the next year, Smith took over the position.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 43" /> He worked as an academic for the next 13 years, which he characterised as "by far the most useful and therefore by far the happiest and most honorable period [of his life]".<ref name="rae 1895 42">{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=42}}</ref>

Smith published ''[[The Theory of Moral Sentiments]]'' in 1759, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures. This work was concerned with how human morality depends on sympathy between agent and spectator, or the individual and other members of society. Smith defined "mutual sympathy" as the basis of [[Moral sense theory|moral sentiments]]. He based his explanation, not on a special "moral sense" as [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury]], and Hutcheson had done, nor on [[utilitarianism|utility]] as Hume did, but on mutual sympathy, a term best captured in modern parlance by the 20th-century concept of [[empathy]], the capacity to recognise feelings that are being experienced by another being.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleischacker |first1=Samuel |title=Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy |date=2019 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0226661896 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo43987952.html}}</ref>

[[File:François Quesnay.jpg|thumb|upright|[[François Quesnay]], one of the leaders of the [[Physiocracy|physiocratic]] school of thought|alt=A drawing of a man sitting down]]
Following the publication of ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'', Smith became so popular that many wealthy students left their schools in other countries to enroll at Glasgow to learn under Smith.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=15}}</ref> At this time, Smith began to give more attention to [[jurisprudence]] and economics in his lectures and less to his theories of morals.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=67}}</ref> For example, Smith lectured that the cause of increase in national wealth is labour, rather than the nation's quantity of gold or silver, which is the basis for [[mercantilism]], the [[economic theory]] that dominated Western European economic policies at the time.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=13}}</ref>

In 1762, the University of Glasgow conferred on Smith the title of [[Doctor of Law]]s (LL.D.).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/archives/exhibitions/smith/photogallery/honorarydegree/|title=MyGlasgow – Archive Services – Exhibitions – Adam Smith in Glasgow – Photo Gallery – Honorary degree|website=University of Glasgow|access-date=6 November 2018|archive-date=6 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106132237/https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/archives/exhibitions/smith/photogallery/honorarydegree/|url-status=live}}</ref> At the end of 1763, he obtained an offer from the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer|chancellor of the exchequer]], [[Charles Townshend]]—who had been introduced to Smith by David Hume—to tutor his stepson, [[Henry Scott, 3rd Duke of Buccleuch|Henry Scott]], the young [[Duke of Buccleuch]] as preparation for a career in international politics. Smith resigned from his professorship in 1764 to take the tutoring position. He subsequently attempted to return the fees he had collected from his students because he had resigned partway through the term, but his students refused.<ref name="Buchholz 1999 16">{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=16}}</ref>

===Tutoring, travels, European intellectuals===
Smith's tutoring job entailed touring Europe with Scott, during which time he educated Scott on a variety of subjects. He was paid £300 per year (plus expenses) along with a £300-per-year pension; roughly twice his former income as a teacher.<ref name="Buchholz 1999 16" /> Smith first travelled as a tutor to [[Toulouse]], France, where he stayed for a year and a half. According to his own account, he found Toulouse to be somewhat boring, having written to Hume that he "had begun to write a book to pass away the time".<ref name="Buchholz 1999 16" /> After touring the [[south of France]] the group moved to [[Geneva]], where Smith met the French writer and philosopher [[Voltaire]].<ref>{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|pp=16–17}}</ref>

[[File:Allan Ramsay - David Hume, 1711 - 1776. Historian and philosopher - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|[[David Hume]] was a friend and contemporary of Smith's.|alt=Philosopher David Hume, painting]]
From Geneva, the party moved to Paris. Here, Smith met the American publisher and diplomat [[Benjamin Franklin]], who a few years later would lead the opposition in the American colonies against four British resolutions from Charles Townshend (in history known as the [[Townshend Acts]]), which threatened American colonial self-government and imposed revenue duties on a number of items necessary to the colonies. Smith discovered the [[Physiocracy]] school founded by [[François Quesnay]] and discussed with their intellectuals.<ref name="Buchholz 17">{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=17}}</ref> Physiocrats were opposed to [[mercantilism]], the dominating economic theory of the time, illustrated in their motto ''[[Laissez-faire|Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!]]'' (Let do and let pass, the world goes on by itself!).

The wealth of France had been virtually depleted by [[Louis XIV]]{{efn|During the reign of [[Louis XIV]], the population shrunk by 4 million and agricultural productivity was reduced by one-third while the taxes had increased. Cusminsky, Rosa, de Cendrero, 1967, ''Los Fisiócratas'', Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de América Latina, p. 6}} and [[Louis XV]] in ruinous wars,{{efn|1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession, 1688–1697 War of the Grand Alliance, 1672–1678 Franco-Dutch War, 1667–1668 War of Devolution, 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War}} and was further exhausted in aiding the [[American Revolutionary War|American revolutionary soldiers]], against the British. Given that the British economy of the day yielded an income distribution that stood in contrast to that which existed in France, Smith concluded that "with all its imperfections, [the Physiocratic school] is perhaps the nearest approximation to the truth that has yet been published upon the subject of political economy."<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Wealth of Nations'' edited by R.&nbsp;H. Campbell and A.&nbsp;S. Skinner, The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, vol. 2b, p. 678.</ref> The distinction between productive versus unproductive labour—the physiocratic ''classe steril''—was a predominant issue in the development and understanding of what would become classical economic theory.

===Later years===
In 1766 Henry Scott's younger brother died in Paris, and Smith's tour as a tutor ended shortly thereafter.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=18}}</ref> Smith returned home that year to Kirkcaldy, and he devoted much of the next decade to writing his ''magnum opus''.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=90}}</ref> There, he befriended [[Henry Moyes]], a young blind man who showed precocious aptitude. Smith secured the patronage of David Hume and [[Thomas Reid]] in the young man's education.<ref>''Dr [[James Currie (physician)|James Currie]] to [[Thomas Creevey]]'', 24 February 1793, Lpool RO, Currie MS 920 CUR</ref> In May 1767 Smith was elected fellow of the [[Royal Society of London]],<ref>Smith was elected a [[Fellowship of the Royal Society|Fellow of the Royal Society]] on 21 May 1767, but was not admitted until 27 May 1773. See {{cite book |title =The Correspondence of Adam Smith |editor1= Mossner, Ernest Campbell |editor1-link= Ernest Campbell Mossner |editor2= Ross, Ian Simpson |editor2-link = Ian Simpson Ross |place = Indianapolis |publisher = Liberty Fund |year = 1987 |edition = 2nd |url= https://archive.org/details/correspondenceof0000smit_e1l8/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access= registration |isbn=0198285701 |via= [[Internet Archive]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/correspondenceof0000smit_e1l8/page/131/mode/2up?view=theater 131]}}; {{cite book |author= Ross, Ian Simpson |author-link = Ian Simpson Ross  |title= The Life of Adam Smith |place= Oxford |publisher= Clarendon Press |year= 2010 |edition= 2nd |isbn= 978-0199550036 |url= https://archive.org/details/lifeofadamsmith0000ross_l0d1_2ndedition/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access= registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/lifeofadamsmith0000ross_l0d1_2ndedition/page/266/mode/2up?view=theater 266] |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=89}}</ref> and was elected a member of the [[The Club (dining club)|Literary Club]] in 1775. ''The Wealth of Nations'' was published in 1776 and was an instant success, selling out its first edition in only six months.<ref name="Buchholz 19">{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=19}}</ref>

In 1778 Smith was appointed to a post as commissioner of customs in Scotland and went to live with his mother (who died in 1784)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Durant|first1=Will|last2=Durant|first2=Ariel|title=The Story of Civilization: Rousseau and Revolution|year= 1967|publisher=MJF Books|isbn=1567310214|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofcivilizat00dura_3}}</ref> in [[Panmure House (Edinburgh)|Panmure House]] in [[the Canongate]] in Edinburgh.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=128}}</ref> Five years later, as a member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh when it received its royal charter, he automatically became one of the founding members of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]].<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=133}}</ref> From 1787 to 1789 he occupied the honorary position of Lord [[Rector of the University of Glasgow]].<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=137}}</ref>

===Death===
[[File:Kirkcaldy High Street Adam Smith Plaque.png|thumb|upright|right|A commemorative plaque for Smith is located in Smith's home town of [[Kirkcaldy]].|alt=A plaque of Smith]]
Smith died in the northern wing of Panmure House in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790 after a painful illness. His body was buried in the [[Canongate Kirkyard]].<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=145}}</ref> On his deathbed, Smith expressed disappointment that he had not achieved more.<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 53">{{harvnb|Bussing-Burks|2003|p=53}}</ref>

Smith's literary executors were two friends from the Scottish academic world: the physicist and chemist [[Joseph Black]] and the pioneering geologist [[James Hutton]].<ref name="buchan 2006 25">{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=25}}</ref> Smith left behind many notes and some unpublished material, but gave instructions to destroy anything that was not fit for publication.<ref name="buchan 2006 88">{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=88}}</ref> He mentioned an early unpublished ''History of Astronomy'' as probably suitable, and it duly appeared in 1795, along with other material such as ''[[Essays on Philosophical Subjects]]''.<ref name="buchan 2006 25"/>

Smith's library went by his will to [[David Douglas, Lord Reston]] (son of his cousin Colonel Robert Douglas of Strathendry, Fife), who lived with Smith.{{sfn|Bonar|1894|p=xiv}} It was eventually divided between his two surviving children, Cecilia Margaret (Mrs.&nbsp;Cunningham) and David Anne (Mrs.&nbsp;Bannerman). On the death in 1878 of her husband, the Reverend W.&nbsp;B. Cunningham of Prestonpans, Mrs.&nbsp;Cunningham sold some of the books. The remainder passed to her son, Professor [[Robert Oliver Cunningham]] of Queen's College, Belfast, who presented a part to the library of Queen's College. After his death, the remaining books were sold. On the death of Mrs. Bannerman in 1879, her portion of the library went intact to the New College (of the Free Church) in [[Edinburgh]] and the collection was transferred to the University of Edinburgh Main Library in 1972.

==Personality and beliefs==
===Character===
[[File:AdamSmith1790b.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Smith by [[John Kay (caricaturist)|John Kay]], 1790|alt=A drawing of a man standing up, with one hand holding a cane and the other pointing at a book]]
Not much is known about Smith's personal views beyond what can be deduced from his published articles. His personal papers were destroyed after his death, per his request.<ref name="buchan 2006 88"/> He never married,<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=11}}</ref> and seems to have maintained a close relationship with his mother, with whom he lived after his return from France and who died six years before him.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=134}}</ref>

Smith was described by several of his contemporaries and biographers as comically absent-minded, with peculiar habits of speech and gait, and a smile of "inexpressible benignity".<ref>{{harvnb|Rae|1895|p=262}}</ref> He was known to talk to himself,<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 53"/> a habit that began during his childhood when he would smile in rapt conversation with invisible companions.<ref name="skousen 2001 32">{{harvnb|Skousen|2001|p=32}}</ref> He also had occasional spells of imaginary illness,<ref name="Bussing-Burks 2003 53"/> and he is reported to have had books and papers placed in tall stacks in his study.<ref name="skousen 2001 32"/> According to one story, Smith took Charles Townshend on a tour of a [[Tanning (leather)|tanning]] factory, and while discussing [[free trade]], Smith walked into a huge [[Tanning (leather)|tanning pit]] from which he needed help to escape.<ref name="Buchholz 14">{{harvnb|Buchholz|1999|p=14}}</ref> He is also said to have put bread and butter into a teapot, drunk the concoction, and declared it to be the worst cup of tea he had ever had. According to another account, Smith distractedly went out walking in his nightgown and ended up {{convert|15|mi|km}} outside town, before nearby church bells brought him back to reality.<ref name="skousen 2001 32"/><ref name="Buchholz 14"/>

[[James Boswell]], who was a student of Smith's at [[University of Glasgow|Glasgow University]], and later knew him at the [[The Club (Literary Club)|Literary Club]], says that Smith thought that speaking about his ideas in conversation might reduce the sale of his books, so his conversation was unimpressive. According to Boswell, he once told [[Joshua Reynolds|Sir Joshua Reynolds]], that "he made it a rule when in company never to talk of what he understood".<ref>Boswell's ''[[Life of Samuel Johnson]]'', 1780.</ref>

Smith has been alternatively described as someone who "had a large nose, bulging eyes, a protruding lower lip, a nervous twitch, and a speech impediment" and one whose "countenance was manly and agreeable".<ref name="Buchholz 1999 12"/><ref>{{harvnb|Ross|2010|p=330}}</ref> Smith is said to have acknowledged his looks at one point, saying, "I am a beau in nothing but my books."<ref name="Buchholz 1999 12"/> Smith rarely sat for portraits,<ref>{{cite book |last=Stewart |first=Dugald |title=The Works of Adam Smith: With An Account of His Life and Writings |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |location=London |year=1853 |page=lxix |oclc=3226570 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FbYCAAAAYAAJ |no-pp=true |access-date=13 May 2020 |archive-date=13 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613114606/https://books.google.com/books?id=FbYCAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> so almost all depictions of him created during his lifetime were drawn from memory. The best-known portraits of Smith are the profile by [[James Tassie]] and two [[etching]]s by [[John Kay (caricaturist)|John Kay]].<ref>{{harvnb|Rae|1895|pp=376–377}}</ref> The line engravings produced for the covers of 19th-century reprints of ''The Wealth of Nations'' were based largely on Tassie's medallion.<ref>{{harvnb|Bonar|1894|p=xxi}}</ref>

===Religious views===
Considerable scholarly debate has occurred about the nature of Smith's religious views. His father had shown a strong interest in Christianity and belonged to the moderate wing of the [[Church of Scotland]],<ref>{{harvnb|Ross|1995|p=15}}</ref> and the fact that he received the Snell Exhibition suggests that he may have gone to Oxford with the intention of pursuing a career in the Church of England.<ref>{{cite journal|date=24 July 1790|title=Times obituary of Adam Smith|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1790/Obituary/Adam_Smith|journal=[[The Times]]|access-date=24 October 2012|archive-date=10 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510035102/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1790/Obituary/Adam_Smith|url-status=live}}</ref>

The British economist [[Ronald Coase]] challenged the view that Smith was a [[deist]], based on the fact that Smith's writings never explicitly invoke God as an explanation of the harmonies of the natural or the human worlds.<ref name="Coase">{{harvnb|Coase|1976|pp=529–546}}</ref> According to Coase, though Smith does sometimes refer to the "[[Great Architect of the Universe]]", later scholars such as [[Jacob Viner]] have "very much exaggerated the extent to which Adam Smith was committed to a belief in a personal God",<ref name="Coase-God">{{harvnb|Coase|1976|p=538}}</ref> a belief for which Coase finds little evidence in passages such as the one in the ''Wealth of Nations'' in which Smith writes that the curiosity of mankind about the "great phenomena of nature", such as "the generation, the life, growth, and dissolution of plants and animals", has led men to "enquire into their causes", and that "superstition first attempted to satisfy this curiosity, by referring all those wonderful appearances to the immediate agency of the gods. Philosophy afterwards endeavoured to account for them, from more familiar causes, or from such as mankind were better acquainted with than the agency of the gods".<ref name="Coase-God"/> Some authors argue that Smith's social and economic philosophy is inherently theological and that his entire model of social order is logically dependent on the notion of God's action in nature.<ref name="hidden theology">{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=L. |doi=10.1080/713765225 |title=The hidden theology of Adam Smith |journal=The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought |volume=8 |pages=1–29 |year=2001 |s2cid=154571991 }}</ref> Brendan Long argues that Smith was a [[Theism|theist]],<ref>{{Citation |last=Long |first=Brendan |editor-first1=Vivienne |editor-last1=Brown |title=Adam Smith's natural theology of society |date=2006 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203966365-10/adam-smith-natural-theology-society-brendan-long |work=The Adam Smith Review |volume=2 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780203966365 |isbn=978-0203966365 |access-date=31 May 2022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> whereas according to Gavin Kennedy, Smith was "in some sense" a Christian.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=Gavin |date=2011 |title=The Hidden Adam Smith In His Alleged Theology |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-history-of-economic-thought/article/abs/hidden-adam-smith-in-his-alleged-theology/5A697C438BD0D7C1716C0E5CD85BF475 |journal=Journal of the History of Economic Thought |language=en |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=385–402 |doi=10.1017/S1053837211000204 |s2cid=154779976 |issn=1469-9656|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Smith was also a close friend of [[David Hume]], who, despite [[David Hume#Religious views|debate about his religious views in modern scholarship]], was commonly characterised in his own time as an [[atheist]].<ref name="hume on religion">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/ |title=Hume on Religion |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |access-date=26 May 2008 |archive-date=15 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915103209/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The publication in 1777 of Smith's letter to [[William Strahan (publisher)|William Strahan]], in which he described Hume's courage in the face of death in spite of his irreligiosity, attracted considerable controversy.<ref>{{cite journal |author=[[Eric Schliesser]] |year=2003 |journal=Hume Studies |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=327–362 |title=The Obituary of a Vain Philosopher: Adam Smith's Reflections on Hume's Life |doi=10.1353/hms.2003.a383343 |s2cid=170901056 |url=http://www.humesociety.org/hs/issues/v29n2/schliesser/schliesser-v29n2.pdf |access-date=27 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607171230/http://www.humesociety.org/hs/issues/v29n2/schliesser/schliesser-v29n2.pdf |archive-date=7 June 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Published works==
===''The Theory of Moral Sentiments''===
{{Main|The Theory of Moral Sentiments}}
In 1759 Smith published his first work, ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments,'' sold by the co-publishers [[Andrew Millar]] of London and Alexander Kincaid of Edinburgh.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/|title=Andrew Millar Project, University of Edinburgh|website=millar-project.ed.ac.uk|access-date=3 June 2016|archive-date=8 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160608092547/http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/|url-status=live}}</ref> Smith continued making extensive revisions to the book until his death.{{efn|The 6 editions of ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' were published in 1759, 1761, 1767, 1774, 1781, and 1790, respectively.<ref>{{cite book|title=Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 1 The Theory of Moral Sentiments [1759]}}</ref>}} Although ''The Wealth of Nations'' is widely regarded as Smith's most influential work, Smith himself is believed to have considered ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' to be a superior work.<ref>{{harvnb|Rae|1895}}</ref>

In the work, Smith critically examines the moral thinking of his time, and suggests that conscience arises from dynamic and interactive social relationships through which people seek "mutual sympathy of sentiments."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=37&item=biography |title=Biography of Smith |access-date=14 May 2008 |publisher=[[Liberal Democrat History Group]] |year=1997 |author1-link=Robert Falkner |author=Falkner, Robert |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611110312/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=37&item=biography |archive-date=11 June 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His goal in writing the work was to explain the source of mankind's ability to form moral judgement, given that people begin life with no moral sentiments at all. Smith proposes a theory of sympathy, in which the act of observing others and seeing the judgements they form of both others and oneself makes people aware of themselves and how others perceive their behaviour. The feedback received by an individual from perceiving (or imagining) others' judgement creates an incentive to achieve "mutual sympathy of sentiments" with them and leads people to develop habits, and then principles, of behaviour, which come to constitute one's conscience.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|2002|p=xv}}</ref>

Some scholars have perceived a conflict between ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' and ''The Wealth of Nations''; the former emphasises sympathy for others, while the latter focuses on the role of self-interest.<ref>{{harvnb|Viner|1991|p=250}}</ref> In recent years, however, some scholars<ref>Wight, Jonathan B. ''Saving Adam Smith''. Upper Saddle River: Prentic-Hall, Inc., 2002.</ref><ref>Robbins, Lionel. ''A History of Economic Thought''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.</ref><ref>Brue, Stanley L., and Randy R. Grant. ''The Evolution of Economic Thought''. Mason: Thomson Higher Education, 2007.</ref> of Smith's work have argued that no contradiction exists. They contend that in ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'', Smith develops a theory of psychology in which individuals seek the approval of the "impartial spectator" as a result of a natural desire to have outside observers sympathise with their sentiments. Rather than viewing ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' and ''The Wealth of Nations'' as presenting incompatible views of human nature, some Smith scholars regard the works as emphasising different aspects of human nature that vary depending on the situation. In the first part – ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' – he laid down the foundation of his vision of humanity and society. In the second – ''The Wealth of Nations'' – he elaborated on the virtue of prudence, which for him meant the relations between people in the private sphere of the economy. It was his plan to further elaborate on the virtue of justice in the third book.<ref name="The Theory of Moral Sentiments">{{cite web |last1=Van Schie |first1=Patrick |title=The Theory of Moral Sentiments |url=https://liberalforum.eu/publication/liberal-read-no-17-empathy-as-a-pillar-of-liberalism/ |website=European Liberal Forum |access-date=2 August 2022}}</ref> [[James Otteson]] argues that both books are Newtonian in their methodology and deploy a similar "market model" for explaining the creation and development of large-scale human social orders, including morality, economics, as well as language.<ref>Otteson, James R. 2002, ''Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.</ref> [[Robert Ekelund]] and Hebert offer a differing view, observing that self-interest is present in both works and that "in the former, sympathy is the moral faculty that holds self-interest in check, whereas in the latter, competition is the economic faculty that restrains self-interest."<ref>Ekelund, R. & Hebert, R. 2007, ''A History of Economic Theory and Method'' 5th ed. Waveland Press, United States, p. 105.</ref>

===''The Wealth of Nations''===
{{Main|The Wealth of Nations}}
Disagreement exists between classical and neoclassical economists about the central message of Smith's most influential work: ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'' (1776). Neoclassical economists emphasise Smith's [[invisible hand]],<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Wealth of Nations'' edited by R.&nbsp;H. Campbell and A.&nbsp;S. Skinner, ''The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith'', vol. 2a, p. 456.</ref> a concept mentioned in the middle of his work – Book&nbsp;IV, Chapter&nbsp;II – and classical economists believe that Smith stated his programme for promoting the "wealth of nations" in the first sentences, which attributes the growth of wealth and prosperity to the division of labour. He elaborated on the virtue of prudence, which for him meant the relations between people in the private sphere of the economy. He planned to further elaborate on the virtue of justice in the third book.<ref name="The Theory of Moral Sentiments"/>

Smith used the term "the invisible hand" in "History of Astronomy"<ref>Smith, A., 1980, ''The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith'', vol. 3, p. 49, edited by W.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;D. Wightman and J.&nbsp;C. Bryce, Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref> referring to "the invisible hand of Jupiter", and once in each of his ''[[The Theory of Moral Sentiments]]''<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith'', vol. 1, pp. 184–185, edited by D.&nbsp;D. Raphael and A.&nbsp;L. Macfie, Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref> (1759) and ''The Wealth of Nations''<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith'', vol. 2a, p. 456, edited by R.&nbsp;H. Cambell and A.&nbsp;S. Skinner, Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref> (1776). This last statement about "an invisible hand" has been interpreted in numerous ways.

[[File:19th-century building at location where Adam Smith lived, 1767-1776.jpg|thumb|[[Adam Smith House|Later building on the site]] where Smith wrote ''The Wealth of Nations''|alt=A brown building]]
<blockquote>As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it.</blockquote>

Those who regard that statement as Smith's central message also quote frequently Smith's dictum:<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Glasgow edition'', vol. 2a, pp. 26–27.</ref>

<blockquote>It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.</blockquote>However, in ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' he had a more sceptical approach to self-interest as driver of behaviour:<blockquote>How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.</blockquote>[[File:Wealth of Nations.jpg|thumb|upright|The first page of ''The Wealth of Nations'', 1776 London edition|alt=The first page of a book]]
In relation to [[Bernard Mandeville]]'s contention that "Private Vices ... may be turned into Public Benefits",<ref>Mandeville, B., 1724, ''The Fable of the Bees'', London: Tonson.</ref> Smith's belief that when an individual pursues his self-interest under conditions of justice, he unintentionally promotes the good of society. Self-interested competition in the free market, he argued, would tend to benefit society as a whole by keeping prices low, while still building in an incentive for a wide variety of goods and services. Nevertheless, he was wary of businessmen and warned of their "conspiracy against the public or in some other contrivance to raise prices."<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Glasgow edition'', vol. 2a, pp. 145, 158.</ref> Again and again, Smith warned of the collusive nature of business interests, which may form cabals or [[Monopoly|monopolies]], fixing the highest price "which can be squeezed out of the buyers."<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Glasgow edition'', vol. 2a, p. 79.</ref> Smith also warned that a business-dominated political system would allow a conspiracy of businesses and industry against consumers, with the former scheming to influence politics and legislation. Smith states that the interest of manufacturers and merchants "in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public ... The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous but with the most suspicious attention."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Gopnik |first=Adam |title=Market Man |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=10 October 2010 |issue=18 October 2010 |page=82 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/18/101018crbo_books_gopnik |access-date=27 April 2011 |archive-date=5 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305185415/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/18/101018crbo_books_gopnik |url-status=live }}</ref> Thus Smith's chief worry seems to be when business is given special protections or privileges from government; by contrast, in the absence of such special political favours, he believed that business activities were generally beneficial to the whole society:

<blockquote>It is the great multiplication of the production of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people. Every workman has a great quantity of his own work to dispose of beyond what he himself has occasion for; and every other workman being exactly in the same situation, he is enabled to exchange a great quantity of his own goods for a great quantity, or, what comes to the same thing, for the price of a great quantity of theirs. He supplies them abundantly with what they have occasion for, and they accommodate him as amply with what he has occasion for, and a general plenty diffuses itself through all the different ranks of society. (''The Wealth of Nations,'' I.i.10)</blockquote>

The neoclassical interest in Smith's statement about "an invisible hand" originates in the possibility of seeing it as a precursor of [[neoclassical economics]] and its concept of [[General equilibrium theory|general equilibrium]]; [[Paul Samuelson]]'s "Economics" refers six times to Smith's "invisible hand". To emphasise this connection, Samuelson<ref>Samuelson, P.&nbsp;A./Nordhaus, William&nbsp;D., 1989, ''Economics'', 13th ed., N.Y. et al.: McGraw-Hill, p. 825.</ref> quotes Smith's "invisible hand" statement substituting "general interest" for "public interest". Samuelson<ref>Samuelson, P.&nbsp;A./Nordhaus, William&nbsp;D., 1989, idem, p. 825.</ref> concludes: "Smith was unable to prove the essence of his invisible-hand doctrine. Indeed, until the 1940s, no one knew how to prove, even to state properly, the kernel of truth in this proposition about perfectly competitive market."

[[File:Smith - Inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, 1922 - 5231847.tif|thumb|170px|1922 printing of ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,'' edited by [[Edwin Cannan]]]]
Conversely, classical economists see in Smith's first sentences his programme to promote "The Wealth of Nations". Using the physiocratical concept of the economy as a circular process, to secure growth the inputs of Period 2 must exceed the inputs of Period 1. Therefore, those outputs of Period 1 which are not used or usable as inputs of Period 2 are regarded as unproductive labour, as they do not contribute to growth. This is what Smith had heard in France from, among others, [[François Quesnay]], whose ideas Smith was so impressed by that he might have dedicated ''The Wealth of Nations'' to him had he not died beforehand.<ref>{{harvnb|Buchan|2006|p=80}}</ref><ref>Stewart, D., 1799, ''Essays on Philosophical Subjects, to which is prefixed An Account of the Life and Writings of the Author by Dugald Stewart, F.R.S.E.'', Basil; from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Read by Mr. Stewart, 21 January, and 18 March 1793; in: The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 1982, vol. 3, pp. 304 ff.</ref> To this French insight that unproductive labour should be reduced to use labour more productively, Smith added his own proposal, that productive labour should be made even more productive by deepening the [[division of labour]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Bertholet|first=Auguste|date=2021|title=Constant, Sismondi et la Pologne|url=https://www.slatkine.com/fr/editions-slatkine/75250-book-05077807-3600120175625.html|journal=Annales Benjamin Constant|volume=46|pages=80–81}}</ref> Smith argued that deepening the division of labour under competition leads to greater productivity, which leads to lower prices and thus an increasing standard of living—"general plenty" and "universal opulence"—for all. Extended markets and increased production lead to the continuous reorganisation of production and the invention of new ways of producing, which in turn lead to further increased production, lower prices, and improved standards of living. Smith's central message is, therefore, that under dynamic competition, a growth machine secures "The Wealth of Nations". Smith's argument predicted Britain's evolution as the workshop of the world, underselling and outproducing all its competitors. The opening sentences of the "Wealth of Nations" summarise this policy:

<blockquote>The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life which it annually consumes ... . [T]his produce ... bears a greater or smaller proportion to the number of those who are to consume it ... .[B]ut this proportion must in every nation be regulated by two different circumstances;
* first, by the skill, dexterity, and judgement with which its labour is generally applied; and,
* secondly, by the proportion between the number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who are not so employed [emphasis added].<ref>Smith, A., 1976, vol. 2a, p. 10, idem</ref></blockquote>

However, Smith added that the "abundance or scantiness of this supply too seems to depend more upon the former of those two circumstances than upon the latter."<ref>Smith, A., 1976, vol. 1, p. 10, para. 4</ref>

In ''The Wealth of Nations'' Smith states four maxims of taxation: (1) equality (people must contribute to the support of the government in proportion to their abilities), (2) certainty (the time, manner and quantity of tax imposed must be certain, transparent and not arbitrary), (3) convenience for taxpayers, and (4) economy in tax collection.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Lin |first=Shuanglin |title=China's Public Finance: Reforms, Challenges, and Options |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2022 |isbn=978-1009099028 |edition= |location=New York, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=2}} According to Smith, "It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more in that proportion".<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=98}}

Smith wrote that a government is duty-bound to provide public services that "support the whole of society" like provide public education, transportation, national defence, a justice system, public safety, and public infrastructure to support commerce.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=163}}

===Other works===
[[File:Adam Smith Grave.JPG|thumb|upright|Smith's burial place in [[Canongate Kirkyard]]|alt=A burial]]
Shortly before his death, Smith had nearly all his manuscripts destroyed. In his last years, he seemed to have been planning two major treatises, one on the theory and history of law and one on the sciences and arts. The posthumously published ''Essays on Philosophical Subjects'', a history of [[astronomy]] down to Smith's own era, plus some thoughts on [[ancient physics]] and [[metaphysics]], probably contain parts of what would have been the latter treatise. ''[[Lectures on Jurisprudence]]'' were notes taken from Smith's early lectures, plus an early draft of ''The Wealth of Nations'', published as part of the 1976 Glasgow Edition of the works and correspondence of Smith. Other works, including some published posthumously, include ''Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms'' (1763) (first published in 1896); and ''Essays on Philosophical Subjects'' (1795).<ref>''The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith'', 1982, 6 volumes</ref>

==Legacy==
===In economics and moral philosophy===
''The Wealth of Nations'' was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, Smith expounded how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. Smith was controversial in his own day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by [[Tories (British political party)|Tory]] writers in the moralising tradition of Hogarth and Swift, as a discussion at the University of Winchester suggests.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=11 February 2010 |url=http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=343 |title=Adam Smith – Jonathan Swift |publisher=University of Winchester |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091128233435/http://journalism.winchester.ac.uk/?page=343 |archive-date=28 November 2009}}</ref> In 2005 ''The Wealth of Nations'' was named among the 100 Best Scottish Books of all time.<ref name="100 Best Scottish Books, Adam Smith">[http://www.list.co.uk/articles/100-best-scottish-books/adam-smith/ 100 Best Scottish Books, Adam Smith] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020113357/http://www.list.co.uk/articles/100-best-scottish-books/adam-smith/ |date=20 October 2013 }} Retrieved 31 January 2012</ref>

In light of the arguments put forward by Smith and other economic theorists in Britain, academic belief in mercantilism began to decline in Britain in the late 18th century. During the [[Industrial Revolution]], Britain embraced free trade and Smith's ''laissez-faire'' economics, and via the [[British Empire]], used its power to spread a broadly liberal economic model around the world, characterised by open markets, and relatively barrier-free domestic and international trade.<ref>L.Seabrooke (2006). "Global Standards of Market Civilization". p. 192. Taylor & Francis 2006</ref>

[[George Stigler]] attributes to Smith "the most important substantive proposition in all of economics". It is that, under competition, owners of resources (for example labour, land, and capital) will use them most profitably, resulting in an equal rate of return in [[Economic equilibrium|equilibrium]] for all uses, adjusted for apparent differences arising from such factors as training, trust, hardship, and unemployment.<ref>Stigler, George&nbsp;J. (1976). "The Successes and Failures of Professor Smith", ''Journal of Political Economy'', 84(6), [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1831274 pp. 1199]–1213 [1202]. Also published as Selected Papers, No. 50 [https://google.com/scholar?q=cache:hs0XwYbafSgJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=80000000000000 (PDF)]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.</ref>

[[Paul Samuelson]] finds in Smith's pluralist use of supply and demand as applied to wages, rents, and profit a valid and valuable anticipation of the [[general equilibrium]] modelling of [[Léon Walras]] a century later. Smith's allowance for wage increases in the short and intermediate term from capital accumulation and invention contrasted with [[Thomas Robert Malthus]], [[David Ricardo]], and [[Karl Marx]] in their propounding a rigid subsistence–wage theory of labour supply.<ref>Samuelson, Paul A. (1977). "A Modern Theorist's Vindication of Adam Smith", ''American Economic Review'', 67(1), [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1815879 p. 42.] Reprinted in J.C. Wood, ed., ''Adam Smith: Critical Assessments'', pp. 498–509. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B8FY8mo5zX4C&pg=PA498=GBS_ATB Preview.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319073244/http://books.google.com/books?id=B8FY8mo5zX4C&printsec=find&pg=PA498=gbs_atb |date=19 March 2015 }}</ref>

[[Joseph Schumpeter]] criticised Smith for a lack of technical rigour, yet he argued that this enabled Smith's writings to appeal to wider audiences: "His very limitation made for success. Had he been more brilliant, he would not have been taken so seriously. Had he dug more deeply, had he unearthed more recondite truth, had he used more difficult and ingenious methods, he would not have been understood. But he had no such ambitions; in fact he disliked whatever went beyond plain common sense. He never moved above the heads of even the dullest readers. He led them on gently, encouraging them by trivialities and homely observations, making them feel comfortable all along."<ref>{{cite book |title=Schumpeter History of Economic Analysis |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=185}}</ref>

Classical economists presented competing theories to those of Smith, termed the "[[labour theory of value#The theory's development|labour theory of value]]". Later Marxian economics descending from classical economics also use Smith's labour theories, in part. The first volume of Marx's major work, ''[[Das Kapital]]'', was published in German in 1867. In it Marx focused on the labour theory of value and what he considered to be the exploitation of labour by capital.<ref name="Roemer">[[John Roemer|Roemer, J.E.]] (1987). "Marxian Value Analysis". ''[[The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics]]'', v. 3, 383.</ref><ref>[[Ernest Mandel|Mandel, Ernest]] (1987). "Marx, Karl Heinrich", ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'' v. 3, pp. 372, 376.</ref> The labour theory of value held that the value of a thing was determined by the labour that went into its production. This contrasts with the modern contention of [[neoclassical economics]], that the value of a thing is determined by what one is willing to give up to obtain the thing. [[Frédéric Bastiat]] advocated a similar theory, that the value of a thing or service was its utility, or usefulness, to others. One example he used was of one finding a large diamond after having done little labor; yet it was still valuable because others wanted it.

[[File:Adam Smith Theatre, Bennochy Road, Kirkcaldy.jpg|thumb|The Adam Smith Theatre in [[Kirkcaldy]]|alt=A brown building]]

The body of theory later termed "neoclassical economics" or "[[marginalism#The Marginal Revolution|marginalism]]" formed from about 1870 to 1910. The term "economics" was popularised by such neoclassical economists as [[Alfred Marshall]] as a concise synonym for "economic science" and a substitute for the earlier, broader term "[[political economy]]" used by Smith.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Marshall, Alfred |author2=Marshall, Mary Paley |year=1879 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLcJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 |title=The Economics of Industry |page=2 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1855065475 |access-date=13 May 2020 |archive-date=13 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613110634/https://books.google.com/books?id=NLcJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Jevons, W. Stanley |year=1879 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aYcBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR3 |title=The Theory of Political Economy |page=xiv |access-date=13 May 2020 |archive-date=13 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613103855/https://books.google.com/books?id=aYcBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR3 |url-status=live }}</ref> This corresponded to the influence on the subject of mathematical methods used in the [[natural science]]s.<ref name="Clark">Clark, B. (1998). ''Political-economy: A comparative approach'', 2nd ed., Westport, CT: Praeger. p. 32.</ref> Neoclassical economics systematised [[supply and demand]] as joint determinants of price and quantity in market equilibrium, affecting both the allocation of output and the distribution of income. It dispensed with the [[labour theory of value]] of which Smith was most famously identified with in classical economics, in favour of a [[marginal utility]] theory of value on the demand side and a more general theory of costs on the supply side.<ref>Campus, Antonietta (1987). "Marginalist Economics", ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, p. 320</ref>

The bicentennial anniversary of the publication of ''The Wealth of Nations'' was celebrated in 1976, resulting in increased interest for ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' and his other works throughout academia. After 1976 Smith was more likely to be represented as the author of both ''The Wealth of Nations'' and ''The Theory of Moral Sentiments'', and thereby as the founder of a moral philosophy and the science of economics. His ''[[homo economicus]]'' or "economic man" was also more often represented as a moral person. Additionally, economists David Levy and Sandra Peart in "The Secret History of the Dismal Science" point to his opposition to hierarchy and beliefs in equality, including racial equality, and provide additional support for those who point to Smith's opposition to slavery, colonialism, and empire. Emphasised also are Smith's statements of the need for high wages for the poor, and the efforts to keep wages low. In The "Vanity of the Philosopher: From Equality to Hierarchy in Postclassical Economics", Peart and Levy also cite Smith's view that a common street porter was not intellectually inferior to a philosopher,<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1977|loc=§Book I, Chapter 2}}</ref> and point to the need for greater appreciation of the public views in discussions of science and other subjects now considered to be technical. They also cite Smith's opposition to the often expressed view that science is superior to common sense.<ref>"The Vanity of the Philosopher: From Equality to Hierarchy" in ''Postclassical Economics'' [http://www.wfu.edu/~hammond/review%20of%20Peart&Levy,%20final.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004085614/http://www.wfu.edu/~hammond/review%20of%20Peart%26Levy%2C%20final.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.wfu.edu/~hammond/review%20of%20Peart%26Levy%2C%20final.pdf|archive-date=9 October 2022|url-status=live|date=4 October 2012}}</ref>

Smith also explained the relationship between growth of private property and civil government:

<blockquote>Men may live together in society with some tolerable degree of security, though there is no civil magistrate to protect them from the injustice of those passions. But avarice and ambition in the rich, in the poor the hatred of labour and the love of present ease and enjoyment, are the passions which prompt to invade property, passions much more steady in their operation, and much more universal in their influence. Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it. The acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires the establishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least none that exceeds the value of two or three days' labour, civil government is not so necessary. Civil government supposes a certain subordination. But as the necessity of civil government gradually grows up with the acquisition of valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally introduce subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property. (...) Men of inferior wealth combine to defend those of superior wealth in the possession of their property, in order that men of superior wealth may combine to defend them in the possession of theirs. All the inferior shepherds and herdsmen feel that the security of their own herds and flocks depends upon the security of those of the great shepherd or herdsman; that the maintenance of their lesser authority depends upon that of his greater authority, and that upon their subordination to him depends his power of keeping their inferiors in subordination to them. They constitute a sort of little nobility, who feel themselves interested to defend the property and to support the authority of their own little sovereign in order that he may be able to defend their property and to support their authority. Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.<ref>''The Wealth of Nations'', Book 5, Chapter 1, Part 2</ref></blockquote>

===In British imperial debates===
Smith opposed empire. He challenged ideas that colonies were key to British prosperity and power. He rejected that other cultures, such as China and India, were culturally and developmentally inferior to Europe. While he favoured "commercial society", he did not support radical social change and the imposition of commercial society on other societies. He proposed that colonies be given independence or that full political rights be extended to colonial subjects.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pitts |first=Jennifer |url= |title=[[A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France]] |date=2005 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1400826636 |pages=39–58 |language=en}}</ref>

Smith's chapter on colonies, in turn, would help shape British imperial debates from the mid-19th century onward. ''The Wealth of Nations'' would become an ambiguous text regarding the imperial question. In his chapter on colonies, Smith pondered how to solve the crisis developing across the Atlantic among the empire's 13 American colonies. He offered two different proposals for easing tensions. The first proposal called for giving the colonies their independence, and by thus parting on a friendly basis, Britain would be able to develop and maintain a free-trade relationship with them, and possibly even an informal military alliance. Smith's second proposal called for a theoretical imperial federation that would bring the colonies and the metropole closer together through an imperial parliamentary system and imperial free trade.<ref>E.A. Benians, 'Adam Smith's project of an empire', ''Cambridge Historical Journal'' 1 (1925): 249–283</ref>

Smith's most prominent disciple in 19th-century Britain, the peace-advocate [[Richard Cobden]], preferred the first proposal. Cobden would lead the [[Anti-Corn Law League]] in overturning the [[Corn Laws]] in 1846, shifting Britain to a policy of free trade and empire "on the cheap" for decades to come. This hands-off approach toward the British Empire would become known as [[Cobdenism]] or the [[Manchester Liberalism|Manchester School]].<ref>Anthony Howe, ''Free trade and liberal England, 1846–1946'' (Oxford, 1997)</ref> By the turn of the century, however, advocates of Smith's second proposal such as [[Joseph Shield Nicholson]] would become ever more vocal in opposing Cobdenism, calling instead for imperial federation.<ref>J. Shield Nicholson, ''A project of empire: a critical study of the economics of imperialism, with special reference to the ideas of Adam Smith'' (London, 1909)</ref> As Marc-William Palen notes: "On the one hand, Adam Smith's late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Cobdenite adherents used his theories to argue for gradual imperial devolution and empire 'on the cheap'. On the other, various proponents of imperial federation throughout the British World sought to use Smith's theories to overturn the predominant Cobdenite hands-off imperial approach and instead, with a firm grip, bring the empire closer than ever before."<ref>Marc-William Palen, [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9159669&fileId=S0018246X13000101 "Adam Smith as Advocate of Empire, c. 1870–1932"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522065644/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9159669&fileId=S0018246X13000101 |date=22 May 2015 }} ''Historical Journal'' 57: 1 (March 2014): 179–198.</ref> Smith's ideas thus played an important part in subsequent debates over the British Empire.

===Portraits, monuments, and banknotes===
[[File:Adam Smith statue by Alexander Stoddart.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A statue of Smith on [[High Street, Edinburgh|High Street]] in Edinburgh, erected through private donations organised by the [[Adam Smith Institute]]]]
Smith has been commemorated in the UK on banknotes printed by two different banks; his portrait has appeared since 1981 on the £50 notes issued by the [[Clydesdale Bank]] in Scotland,<ref name="clydesdale">{{cite web|url=http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/scotland/ScotlandP209-50Pounds-1981-donatedowl_f.jpg |title=Clydesdale 50 Pounds, 1981 |publisher=Ron Wise's Banknoteworld |access-date=15 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030185820/http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/banknotes/scotland/ScotlandP209-50Pounds-1981-donatedowl_f.jpg |archive-date=30 October 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="scotbanks">{{cite web|url=http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknotes_current_clydesdale_bank.php |title=Current Banknotes : Clydesdale Bank |publisher=The Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers |access-date=15 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081003071439/http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/banknotes_current_clydesdale_bank.php |archive-date=3 October 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and in March 2007 Smith's image also appeared on the new series of [[Bank of England £20 note|£20 notes]] issued by the [[Bank of England]], making him the first Scotsman to feature on an [[Bank of England note issues|English banknote]].<ref name="bbc1">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6096938.stm |title=Smith replaces Elgar on £20 note |access-date=14 May 2008 |publisher=BBC |date=29 October 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070324062831/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6096938.stm |archive-date=24 March 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:6 Burlington Gardens facade Smith.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|A statue of Smith built in 1867–1870 at the old headquarters of the [[University of London]], [[6 Burlington Gardens]]]]

Between 1867 and 1870, a statue of Smith was built into the outside wall of [[6 Burlington Gardens]], then the headquarters of the [[University of London]] (now home to the [[Royal Academy of Arts]]).<ref>{{cite news |title=Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue — Adam Smith (1723–1790), Political economist |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/personExtended/mp04140/adam-smith?tab=iconography |access-date=13 February 2025 |publisher=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref> A large-scale memorial of Smith by [[Alexander Stoddart]] was unveiled on 4 July 2008 in Edinburgh. It is a {{convert|10|ft|adj=on}}-tall bronze sculpture and it stands above the [[Royal Mile]] outside [[St&nbsp;Giles' Cathedral]] in Parliament Square, near the [[Mercat cross]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Adam Smith sculpture to tower over Royal Mile |date=26 September 2007 |work=[[Edinburgh Evening News]] |author=Blackley, Michael}}</ref> Sculptor [[Jim Sanborn]] has created multiple pieces which feature Smith's work. At [[Central Connecticut State University]] is ''Circulating Capital'', a tall cylinder which features an extract from ''The Wealth of Nations'' on the lower half, and on the upper half, some of the same text, but represented in [[binary code]].<ref>{{cite news |title=CCSU welcomes a new kid on the block |date=13 March 2001 |author=Fillo, Maryellen |work=[[The Hartford Courant]]}}</ref> At the [[University of North Carolina at Charlotte]], outside the Belk College of Business Administration, is ''Adam Smith's Spinning Top''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Piece at UNCC is a puzzle for Charlotte, artist says |date=20 May 1997 |author=Kelley, Pam |work=[[The Charlotte Observer]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Artist sheds new light on sculpture |date=1 June 1997 |author=Shaw-Eagle, Joanna |work=[[The Washington Times]]}}</ref> Another Smith sculpture is at [[Cleveland State University]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/sculpture.asp?SID=1055 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205065104/http://www.sculpturecenter.org/oosi/sculpture.asp?SID=1055 |archive-date=5 February 2005 |title=Adam Smith's Spinning Top |publisher=Ohio Outdoor Sculpture Inventory |access-date=24 May 2008}}</ref> Smith also appears as the narrator in the 2013 play ''[[The Low Road (play)|The Low Road]]'', centred on a proponent on ''laissez-faire'' economics in the late 18th century, but dealing obliquely with the [[2008 financial crisis]] and the [[Great Recession]]; he was portrayed by [[Bill Paterson (actor)|Bill Paterson]] in the premiere production at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] in London.<ref>{{cite web|author=Paul Taylor |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/the-low-road-royal-court-london-8553085.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/the-low-road-royal-court-london-8553085.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=The Low Road, Royal Court, London - Reviews - Theatre & Dance |newspaper=The Independent |date=28 March 2013 |accessdate=13 February 2025}}</ref>

A bust of Smith is in the Hall of Heroes of the [[National Wallace Monument]] in [[Stirling]]. Five paving stones, displaying quotations from Smith's works, were unveiled in December 2023 on [[High Street, Glasgow|High Street]] in Glasgow. They were commissioned by the University of Glasgow to mark the 300th anniversary of Smith's birth.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wilson |first1=Caroline |title=University of Glasgow honours famous graduate at historic site |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23964936.adam-smith-memorial-unveiled-university-glasgow/ |access-date=5 December 2023 |work=The Herald |date=4 December 2023 |page=11 |language=en}}</ref>

===Panmure House===
Adam Smith resided at [[Panmure House (Edinburgh)|Panmure House]] from 1778 to 1790. In 2008, the house was purchased by the [[Edinburgh Business School]] at [[Heriot-Watt University]] and funds were raised for its restoration.<ref>{{cite web |title=The restoration of Panmure House |url=http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/misc/the-restoration-of-panmure-house |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120122103606/http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/misc/the-restoration-of-panmure-house |archive-date=22 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Adam Smith's Home Gets Business School Revival |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/video/adam-smith-s-home-gets-business-school-revival-byl368j8Sii~TiQiBHwEyw.html |work=Bloomberg |access-date=5 March 2017 |archive-date=24 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624012444/http://www.bloomberg.com/video/adam-smith-s-home-gets-business-school-revival-byl368j8Sii~TiQiBHwEyw.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2018 it was formally opened as a study centre in Smith's honour.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stephen |first1=Phyllis |title=Panmure House reopened for the people |url=https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2018/12/panmure-house-reopened-for-the-people/ |website=The Edinburgh Reporter |access-date=5 December 2023 |date=9 December 2018 |archive-date=5 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205174049/https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2018/12/panmure-house-reopened-for-the-people/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===As a symbol of free-market economics===
{{Capitalism sidebar|Intellectuals}}
Smith has been celebrated by advocates of free-market policies as the founder of free-market economics, a view reflected in the naming of bodies such as the [[Adam Smith Institute]] in London, multiple entities known as the "Adam Smith Society", including an historical Italian organisation,<ref name="urlThe Adam Smith Society">{{cite web |url=http://www.adamsmith.it/presentazione.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070721032612/http://www.adamsmith.it/presentazione.html |archive-date=21 July 2007 |title=The Adam Smith Society |access-date=24 May 2008 |publisher=The Adam Smith Society}}</ref> and the US-based [[Adam Smith Society]],<ref name="Bloomberg">{{cite news|last1=Choi|first1=Amy|title=Defying Skeptics, Some Business Schools Double Down on Capitalism|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-03-04/defying-skeptics-some-business-schools-double-down-on-capitalism|access-date=24 February 2015|publisher=[[Bloomberg Business News]]|date=4 March 2014|archive-date=26 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226101310/http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-03-04/defying-skeptics-some-business-schools-double-down-on-capitalism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Who We Are">{{cite web|url=https://www.adamsmithsociety.com/html/our-history.html|title=Who We Are: The Adam Smith Society|date=April 2016|access-date=2 February 2019|archive-date=9 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209232453/https://www.adamsmithsociety.com/html/our-history.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and the Australian Adam Smith Club,<ref name="urlThe Australian Adam Smith Club">{{cite web |url=http://www.adamsmithclub.org/ |title=The Australian Adam Smith Club |access-date=12 October 2008 |publisher=Adam Smith Club |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509212046/http://www.adamsmithclub.org/ |archive-date=9 May 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and in terms such as the Adam Smith necktie.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3748 |title=Interview with Milton Friedman |last=Levy |first=David |date=June 1992 |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |access-date=1 September 2008 |archive-date=3 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903222048/http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=3748 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Alan Greenspan]], former [[Chair of the Federal Reserve|chair of]] the American [[central bank]], the [[Federal Reserve]], argues that, while Smith did not coin the term ''[[laissez-faire]]'', "it was left to Adam Smith to identify the more-general set of principles that brought conceptual clarity to the seeming chaos of market transactions." Greenspan continues that ''The Wealth of Nations'' was "one of the great achievements in human intellectual history."<ref name="urlFRB: Speech, Greenspan – Adam Smith – 6 February 2005">{{cite web |url=http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/20050206/default.htm |title=FRB: Speech, Greenspan – Adam Smith – 6 February 2005 |access-date=31 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512080427/http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/20050206/default.htm |archive-date=12 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[P. J. O'Rourke]] describes Smith as the "founder of free market economics."<ref name="urlAdam Smith: Web Junkie – Forbes.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/086.html |title=Adam Smith: Web Junkie |work=Forbes |access-date=10 June 2008 |date=5 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520232632/http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/086.html |archive-date=20 May 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[List of Nobel laureates|Nobel laureate]] economist [[Milton Friedman]] believed in 1976, 200 years after the publishing of ''The Wealth of Nations'', that the work of Adam Smith was, "...far more immediately relevant today than he was at the Centennial of The Wealth of Nations in 1876."<ref>{{cite web |title=From 1976: Adam Smith's Relevance for 1976 |url=https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/adam-smiths-relevance-1976 |access-date=24 August 2023 |website=The University of Chicago Booth School of Business |language=en}}</ref>

Other writers have argued that Smith's support for ''laissez-faire'' (which in French means leave alone) has been overstated. [[Herbert Stein]] wrote that the people who "wear an Adam Smith necktie" do it to "make a statement of their devotion to the idea of free markets and [[limited government]]", and that this misrepresents Smith's ideas. Stein writes that Smith "was not pure or doctrinaire about this idea. He viewed government intervention in the market with great skepticism...yet he was prepared to accept or propose qualifications to that policy in the specific cases where he judged that their net effect would be beneficial and would not undermine the basically free character of the system. He did not wear the Adam Smith necktie." In Stein's reading, ''The Wealth of Nations'' could justify the [[Food and Drug Administration]], the [[Consumer Product Safety Commission]], mandatory employer health benefits, environmentalism, and "[[Pigovian tax|discriminatory taxation]] to deter [[sin tax|improper]] or [[sumptuary tax|luxurious behavior]]".<ref>{{cite journal |author=Stein, Herbert |date=6 April 1994 |title=Board of Contributors: Remembering Adam Smith |journal=[[The Wall Street Journal Asia]] |page=A14}}</ref>

Similarly, Vivienne Brown stated in ''[[The Economic Journal]]'' that in the 20th-century United States, supporters of [[Reaganomics]], ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', and other similar sources have spread among the general public a partial and misleading vision of Smith, portraying him as an "extreme dogmatic defender of ''laissez-faire'' capitalism and [[supply-side economics]]".<ref name="Brown93">{{cite journal |author=Brown, Vivienne |date=January 1993 |journal=[[The Economic Journal]] |volume=103 |issue=416 |pages=230–232 |doi=10.2307/2234351 |title=Untitled review of 'Capitalism as a Moral System: Adam Smith's Critique of the Free Market Economy' and 'Adam Smith and his Legacy for Modern Capitalism' |last2=Pack |first2=Spencer J. |last3=Werhane |first3=Patricia H. |jstor=2234351}}</ref> In fact, ''The Wealth of Nations'' includes the following statement on the payment of taxes:

<blockquote>The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.<ref name="Smith 1977 loc=bk. V, ch. 2">{{harvnb|Smith|1977|loc=bk. V, ch. 2}}</ref></blockquote>

Some commentators have argued that Smith's works show support for a progressive, not flat, income tax and that he specifically named taxes that he thought should be required by the state, among them [[Luxury tax|luxury-goods taxes]] and tax on rent.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/18/101018crbo_books_gopnik |title=Market Man |date=18 October 2010 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=20 February 2020 |archive-date=28 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528113724/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/10/18/101018crbo_books_gopnik |url-status=live }}</ref> Yet Smith argued for the "impossibility of taxing the people, in proportion to their economic revenue, by any capitation".<ref>''The Wealth of Nations,'' V.ii.k.1</ref> Smith argued that taxes should principally go toward protecting "justice" and "certain publick institutions" that were necessary for the benefit of all of society, which could not be adequately provided by private enterprise.<ref>''The Wealth of Nations,'' IV.ix.51</ref>

Additionally, Smith outlined the proper expenses of the government in ''The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Ch. I''. Included in his requirements of a government is to enforce contracts and provide justice system, grant patents and copy rights, provide public goods such as infrastructure, provide national defence, and regulate banking. The role of the government was to provide goods "of such a nature that the profit could never repay the expense to any individual" such as roads, bridges, canals, and harbours. He also encouraged invention and new ideas through his patent enforcement and support of infant industry monopolies. He supported partial public subsidies for elementary education, and he believed that competition among religious institutions would provide general benefit to the society. In such cases, Smith argued for local rather than centralised control: "Even those publick works which are of such a nature that they cannot afford any revenue for maintaining themselves ... are always better maintained by a local or provincial revenue, under the management of a local and provincial administration, than by the general revenue of the state" (''Wealth of Nations,'' V.i.d.18). Finally, he outlined how the government should support the dignity of the monarch or chief magistrate, such that they are equal or above the public in fashion. He further stated that monarchs should be provided for in a greater fashion than magistrates of a republic because "we naturally expect more splendor in the court of a king than in the mansion-house of a [[Doge (title)|doge]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|1977|loc=bk. V}}</ref> In addition, he allowed that in some specific circumstances, retaliatory tariffs may be beneficial:

<blockquote>The recovery of a great foreign market will generally more than compensate the transitory inconvenience of paying dearer during a short time for some sorts of goods.<ref>Smith, A., 1976, ''The Glasgow edition'', vol. 2a, p. 468.</ref></blockquote>

However, he added that in general, a retaliatory tariff "seems a bad method of compensating the injury done to certain classes of our people, to do another injury ourselves, not only to those classes, but to almost all the other classes of them".<ref>''The Wealth of Nations,'' IV.ii.39</ref>

[[Economic historian]]s such as [[Jacob Viner]] regard Smith as a strong advocate of free markets and limited government (what Smith called "natural liberty"), but not as a dogmatic supporter of ''laissez-faire''.<ref name="Viner 1927">{{cite journal |author=Viner, Jacob |date=April 1927 |journal=[[The Journal of Political Economy]] |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=198–232 |doi=10.1086/253837 |title=Adam Smith and Laissez-faire |jstor=1823421|s2cid=154539413 }}</ref>

The economist [[Daniel B. Klein|Daniel Klein]] believes using the term "free-market economics" or "free-market economist" to identify the ideas of Smith is too general and slightly misleading. Klein offers six characteristics central to the identity of Smith's economic thought and argues that a new name is needed to give a more accurate depiction of the "Smithian" identity.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Klein, Daniel B. |year=2008 |title=Toward a Public and Professional Identity for Our Economics |journal=Econ Journal Watch |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=358–372 |url=http://econjwatch.org/articles/toward-a-public-and-professional-identity-for-our-economics |access-date=10 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228231445/http://econjwatch.org/articles/toward-a-public-and-professional-identity-for-our-economics |archive-date=28 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Klein, Daniel B. |year=2009 |title=Desperately Seeking Smithians: Responses to the Questionnaire about Building an Identity |journal=Econ Journal Watch |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=113–180 |url=http://econjwatch.org/articles/desperately-seeking-smithians-responses-to-the-questionnaire-about-building-an-identity |access-date=10 February 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228232751/http://econjwatch.org/articles/desperately-seeking-smithians-responses-to-the-questionnaire-about-building-an-identity |archive-date=28 December 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The economist [[David Ricardo]] set straight some of the misunderstandings about Smith's thoughts on free market. Many continue to fall victim to the thinking that Smith was a free-market economist without exception, though he was not. Ricardo pointed out that Smith was in support of helping infant industries. Smith believed that the government should subsidise newly formed industry, but he did fear that when the infant industry grew into adulthood, it would be unwilling to surrender the government help.<ref name="New Ideas From Dead Economists">Buchholz, Todd (December 1990). pp. 38–39.</ref> Smith also supported tariffs on imported goods to counteract an internal tax on the same good. Smith also fell to pressure in supporting some tariffs in support for national defence.<ref name="New Ideas From Dead Economists"/>

Some have also claimed, [[Emma Rothschild]] among them, that Smith would have supported a minimum wage,<ref>Martin, Christopher. "Adam Smith and Liberal Economics: Reading the Minimum Wage Debate of 1795–96," ''Econ Journal Watch'' 8(2): 110–125, May 2011 [http://econjwatch.org/articles/adam-smith-and-liberal-economics-reading-the-minimum-wage-debate-of-1795-96] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228230820/http://econjwatch.org/articles/adam-smith-and-liberal-economics-reading-the-minimum-wage-debate-of-1795-96|date=28 December 2013}}</ref> although no direct textual evidence supports the claim. Indeed, Smith wrote:

<blockquote>The price of labour, it must be observed, cannot be ascertained very accurately anywhere, different prices being often paid at the same place and for the same sort of labour, not only according to the different abilities of the workmen, but according to the easiness or hardness of the masters. Where wages are not regulated by law, all that we can pretend to determine is what are the most usual; and experience seems to show that law can never regulate them properly, though it has often pretended to do so. (''The Wealth of Nations'', Book 1, Chapter 8)</blockquote>

However, Smith also noted, to the contrary, the existence of an [[equality of bargaining power|imbalanced, inequality of bargaining power]]:<ref>A Smith, ''Wealth of Nations'' (1776) Book I, ch 8</ref>
<blockquote>A [[landlord]], a farmer, a master manufacturer, a merchant, though they did not employ a single [[Working class|workman]], could generally live a year or two upon the stocks which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year without employment. In the long run, the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him, but the necessity is not so immediate.</blockquote>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Capitalism|Economics|Liberalism|Libertarianism|Philosophy|Politics|Scotland}}
* [[Critique of political economy]]
* [[Organizational capital]]
* [[List of abolitionist forerunners]]
* [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts]]
* [[List of people on banknotes#Scotland|People on Scottish banknotes]]
* ''[[Adam Smith's America]]''
* [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot]]

==References==
===Informational notes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|refs=
}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S1474691300001062|title=II. Adam Smith's Project of an Empire|year=1925|last1=Benians|first1=E. A.|journal=Cambridge Historical Journal|volume=1|issue=3|pages=249–283}}
* {{cite book |title=A Catalogue of the Library of Adam Smith | editor1-last = Bonar | editor1-first =James |editor-link= James Bonar (civil servant) |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |year=1894 |oclc=2320634 |url=https://archive.org/stream/catalogueoflibr00smit#page/n5/mode/2up |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |title=The Authentic Adam Smith: His Life and Ideas |first=James |last=Buchan |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=2006 |isbn=0393061213 |url=https://archive.org/details/authenticadamsmi0000buch }}
* {{cite book |title=New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought |first=Todd |last=Buchholz |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1999 |isbn=0140283137 }}
* {{cite book |last=Bussing-Burks |first=Marie |title=Influential Economists |publisher=The Oliver Press |location=Minneapolis |year=2003 |isbn=1881508722 |url=https://archive.org/details/influentialecono00buss }}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith |last=Campbell |first=R.H. |author2=Skinner, Andrew S. |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1985 |isbn=0709934734}}
* {{cite journal |last=Coase |first=R.H. |author-link=Ronald Coase |journal=[[The Journal of Law and Economics]] |volume=19 |issue=3 |title=Adam Smith's View of Man |date=October 1976 |pages=529–546 |doi=10.1086/466886 |s2cid=145363933 }}
* Helbroner, Robert L. ''The Essential Adam Smith''. {{ISBN|0393955303}}
* {{cite book|first1=J. Shield|last1=Nicholson|title=A project of empire;a critical study of the economics of imperialism, with special reference to the ideas of Adam Smith.|date=1909|publisher=Macmillan and co., limited|hdl=2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t4th8nc9p}}
* Otteson, James R. (2002). ''Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0521016568}}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0018246X13000101|title=Adam Smith as Advocate of Empire, c. 1870–1932|year=2014|last1=Palen|first1=Marc-William|journal=The Historical Journal|volume=57|pages=179–198|s2cid=159524069|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dd2e/a9ae55694f0531f6a2b240e41b86786cb19d.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218132205/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dd2e/a9ae55694f0531f6a2b240e41b86786cb19d.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 February 2020}}
* {{cite book |author-link=John Rae (biographer) |first=John |last=Rae |title=Life of Adam Smith |publisher=Macmillan |year=1895 |location=London & New York |url=https://archive.org/stream/lifeofadamsmith00raejuoft#page/n3/mode/2up |isbn=0722226586 |access-date= 14 May 2018 |via=Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Ian Simpson Ross |title=The Life of Adam Smith |first=Ian Simpson |last=Ross |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=0198288212 }}
* {{cite book |title=The Life of Adam Smith |edition=2nd |first=Ian Simpson |last=Ross |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 }}
* {{cite book |first=Mark |last=Skousen |author-link=Mark Skousen |title=The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of Great Thinkers |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nsnl3hHPuowC |isbn=0765604809 }}
* {{cite book |title=An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations |first=Adam |last=Smith |publisher=University of Chicago Press |orig-date=1776 |year=1977 |isbn=0226763749 }}
* {{cite book |title=The Theory of Moral Sentiments |editor=D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie |first=Adam |last=Smith |publisher=Liberty Fund |orig-date=1759 |year=1982 |isbn=0865970122}}
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Adam |title=The Theory of Moral Sentiments |editor=Knud Haakonssen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |orig-date=1759 |year=2002 |isbn=0521598478 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0-521-59847-8 }}
* {{cite journal |title=The Two Faces of Adam Smith |first=Vernon L. |last=Smith |s2cid=154002759 |journal=Southern Economic Journal |pages=2–19 |volume=65 |issue=1 |date=July 1998 |doi=10.2307/1061349|jstor=1061349 }}
* {{cite book |title=A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith |last=Tribe |first=Keith |author2=[[Hiroshi Mizuta|Mizuta, Hiroshi]] |publisher=Pickering & Chatto |year=2002 |isbn=978-1851967414}}
* {{cite book |title=Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics |editor=Douglas A. Irwin |first=Jacob |last=Viner |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=0691042667 |year=1991 |url=https://archive.org/details/essaysonintellec0056vine }}

==Further reading==
{{SBDEL poster|Smith, Adam}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|about=yes}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter J. |title=Why Read Adam Smith Today? |journal=[[SSRN Electronic Journal]] |date=2024 |doi=10.2139/ssrn.4741993 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith – A Primer |author=Butler, Eamonn |publisher=[[Institute of Economic Affairs]] |date=2007 |isbn=978-0255366083 |url=http://www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/adam-smith-a-primer}}
* {{cite journal |title=Culture & Political Economy: Adam Smith & Alfred Marshall |journal=[[Tabur]] |year=2012 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2305457|last1=Cook|first1=Simon J.}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: New Interdisciplinary Essays |author=Copley, Stephen |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |date=1995 |isbn=0719039436 }}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations: 1776–1976 |author=Glahe, F. |publisher=[[University Press of Colorado]] |date= 1977 |isbn=0870810820 }}
* {{cite book |title=The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith |author=Haakonssen, Knud |author-link= Knud Haakonssen |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date= 2006 |isbn=0521779243 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |author-link=Ronald Hamowy |title=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter=Smith, Adam (1723–1790) |chapter-url= https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/libertarianism/n287.xml|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |year=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n287 |isbn=978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=470–472 }}
* Hardwick, D. and Marsh, L. (2014). ''[http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137320681 Propriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam Smith]''. Palgrave Macmillan
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Adam Smith (1723–1790 ) |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Smith.html |encyclopedia=[[The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |edition=2nd |series=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |publisher=[[Liberty Fund]] |year=2008|isbn=978-0865976665 |editor-first=David R.|editor-last=Henderson |editor-link=David R. Henderson |pages=590–592 }}
* {{cite book |title=Economics of Adam Smith |url=https://archive.org/details/economicsofadams0000holl |url-access=registration |author=Hollander, Samuel |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |date= 1973 |isbn=080206302-0|author-link=Samuel Hollander }}
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?524494-1/qa-glory-liu-adam-smiths-america ''Q&A'' interview with Glory Liu on ''Adam Smith's America'', December 4, 2022], [[C-SPAN]]}}
* {{cite book |last1=Liu |first1=Glory M. |title=Adam Smith's America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism |date=2022 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0691240879 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9hyEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith, Radical and Egalitarian: An Interpretation for the 21st Century|url= http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/Adam-Smith-radical-and-egalitarian.php|author= McLean, Iain|publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=0748623523}}
* {{cite book |title=After Adam Smith: A Century of Transformation in Politics and Political Economy |author1=Milgate, Murray |author2=Stimson, Shannon. |name-list-style=amp |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |date= 2009 |isbn=978-0691140377 }}
* Mullen, Roger, Smith, Craig, and Mochrie, Robbie (eds.) (2023), ''Adam Smith: The Kirkcaldy Papers'', Adam Smith Global Foundation, [[Kirkcaldy]], {{isbn|978-1399963497}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith in His Time and Ours |author=Muller, Jerry Z. |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |date=1995 |isbn=0691001618}}
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?451666-1/adam-smith Presentation by Jesse Norman on ''Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why It Matters'', September 19, 2018], [[C-SPAN]]}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith: What He Thought, and Why It Matters |author=Norman, Jesse |publisher=Allen Lane |year=2018 |author-link=Jesse Norman }}
* {{cite book |title=On The Wealth of Nations |author=O'Rourke, P.J. |publisher=[[Grove/Atlantic Inc.]] |date=2006 |isbn=0871139499 |url=https://archive.org/details/onwealthofnation00orou }}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life |first=James |last=Otteson |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0521016568}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith |first=James |last=Otteson |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2013 |isbn=978-1441190130}}
* Phillipson, Nicholas (2010). ''Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life'', Yale University Press, {{ISBN|978-0300169270}}, 352 pages; scholarly biography
* [[Éric Pichet|Pichet, Éric]] (2004). [https://www.amazon.fr/dp/2843720400 Adam Smith, je connais !], French biography. {{ISBN|978-2843720406}}
* {{cite book |title=Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations. An Introduction. Springer Graduate Texts in Philosophy |author=Rommel, T., Winter, H. |publisher=[[Springer Academic Press]] |date= 2025 |isbn=978-3031916182}}
* [[Fernando Vianello|Vianello, F.]] (1999). "Social accounting in Adam Smith", in: Mongiovi, G. and Petri F. (eds.), ''Value, Distribution and capital. Essays in honour of [[Pierangelo Garegnani]]'', London: Routledge, {{ISBN|0415142776}}.
* {{cite ODNB |id=25767 |title=Smith, Adam |orig-year=2004 |year=2007 |last=Winch |first=Donald}}
* Wolloch, N. (2015). "Symposium on Jack Russell Weinstein's Adam Smith's Pluralism: Rationality, Education and the Moral Sentiments". ''[http://cosmosandtaxis.org/back-issues/ct-23/ Cosmos + Taxis]''
* [http://imperialglobalexeter.com/2014/03/12/adam-smith-and-empire-a-new-talking-empire-podcast/ "Adam Smith and Empire: A New Talking Empire Podcast"], ''Imperial & Global Forum'', 12 March 2014.

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* [http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers/search?query=%22adam%20smith%22 References to Adam Smith in historic European newspapers]
* {{cite web|url=http://www.adamsmith.org:80/adam-smith/ |title=Adam Smith |access-date=17 May 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090517104046/http://www.adamsmith.org/adam-smith/ |archive-date=17 May 2009}} at the [[Adam Smith Institute]]

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