Adam Smith

Adam Smith
Born	16 June 1723 Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain
Died	17 July 1790 (aged 67) Edinburgh, Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain
Nationality	Scottish
Field of study	Political economy

Adam Smith (June 16, 1723 — July 17, 1790) was a Scottish philosopher and political economist who is best known as the author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth Of Nations (1776), one of the most influential books ever written. Smith created a scientific analysis of capitalism based on the labour theory of value. However, his work contained some errors such as neglecting constant capital and a lack of historical materialism.

Early life

Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland, in 1723, in the family of a postal worker. Smith's father died two months before he was born.

He graduated from secondary and high school, was one of the most educated people of his time. Smith entered the University of Glasgow when he was 14 and studied moral philosophy. In 1740, he was the graduate scholar presented to undertake postgraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, under the Snell Exhibition. His time at Oxford was not a happy one, according to his letters. Near the end of his time there, he began suffering from shaking fits, probably the symptoms of a nervous breakdown. He left Oxford University in 1746, before his scholarship ended.

Work

Smith began delivering public lectures in 1748 at the University of Edinburgh. In 1750, Smith met the philosopher David Hume, who was his senior by more than a decade. In 1751, Smith earned a professorship at Glasgow University teaching logic courses. When the head of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow died the next year, Smith took over the position.

In 1759 he published his book "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". In 1762, the University of Glasgow conferred on Smith the title of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.). At the end of 1763, he obtained an offer from Charles Townshend—who had been introduced to Smith by David Hume—to tutor his stepson, Henry Scott, the young Duke of Buccleuch. Smith resigned from his professorship in 1764 to take the tutoring position.

The Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 and was an instant success, selling out its first edition in only six months.

Smith's economics theory reflected historical conditions of English capitalist development in the 18th century. Karl Marx characterized Smith as "a generalizing economist of the manufactural period". The influence of the manufactural period was reflected in the fact that Smith attributed the decisive role in the development of productive forces to the manufactural division of labor, considering the manufactory as a typical form of enterprise. Smith acted as an ideologist of the bourgeoisie in the period when it played a progressive role. Lenin characterized Smith as "a great ideologist of the advanced bourgeoisie". Smith was not a conscious defender of the bourgeoisie, but objectively, regardless of his subjective sympathies, he defended provisions corresponding to the requirements and interests of the development of the productive forces of capitalist society.

The starting point of the economics theory is the position on the "natural order". Under the "natural order" he understood the "normal" social order, corresponding to human nature and subject to objective economic laws, acting independently of the will and desire of people. This doctrine was metaphysical in nature. In fact, Smith identified "the natural order" with capitalism, which he considered as the only "normal" social order corresponding to the nature of the man. Smith did not deny the existence of other economic orders, but he believed that such orders contradicted the requirements of political economy. However, in spite of its metaphysical character, the development of the doctrine of "natural order" played a positive role. It pushed Smith on the way of revealing inner laws of bourgeois society. But Smith did not always manage to hold on to scientific positions. He often passed from scientific analysis to description of phenomena in that perverted and twisted form in which they appear during surface observation. This led to the inevitable combination of scientific and vulgar elements, to numerous contradictions in his teaching.

Smith died in the northern wing of Panmure House in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790 after a painful illness.

Economic views

Smith divided society into three classes: workers, capitalists, and landowners. Unlike Quesnay, he believed value derived from all labour, not just agricultural labour. However, he only upheld the labour theory of value for small-scale production and thought that the values of capitalist commodities were made of wages, profits, and rents. Smith supported free competition over mercantilism. He predicted that workers with the most difficult jobs would get the highest wages when the opposite was actually true.

Political views

Smith believed that a despotic government could abolish slavery more easily than a representative government controlled by slave owners.

Works

• The Theory of Moral Sentiments
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations