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In the Beginning


Adam Smith was born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. Along with figures like his teacher Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746) and his friend David Hume (1711–76), Smith played an important part in a period of astonishing learning that became known as the Scottish Enlightenment. He published two books in his lifetime, the 1759 Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and the 1776 Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WN), as well as a few surviving essays on topics like the origins of human language, the history of astronomy and physics, and on the “imitative” arts. TMS went through six revised editions during Smith’s lifetime and brought him considerable acclaim. The book was soon considered one of the great works of moral theory—impressing, for example, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), who called Smith his “Liebling” or “favorite” among the British moralists, and Charles Darwin (1809–82), who in his 1871 Descent of Man endorsed and accepted several of Smith’s “striking” conclusions. Yet since the nineteenth century, Smith’s fame has largely rested on his second book, which, whether judged by its influence or its greatness, must be considered one of the most important works of the second millennium.

Not many details of Smith’s boyhood are known. He was born on the 5th of June and was an only child. His father, also named Adam Smith, died shortly before he was born. In his 1793 Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, LL.D., Smith’s student Dugald Stewart reports that Smith’s “constitution during infancy was infirm and sickly, and required all the tender solicitude of his surviving parent. She was blamed for treating him with an unlimited indulgence; but it produced no unfavourable effects on his temper or his dispositions” (Essays on Philosophical Subjects, 269).

Perhaps one anecdote from Smith’s childhood bears repeating. Margaret, Smith’s mothe

Watch Adam Smith: Who was Adam Smith?

Adam Smith was born in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife, in Scotland. At the time, Kirkcaldy was a small but thriving port, with a population of around 1,500 people. Though the 1707 Treaty of Union between England and Scotland would have redirected much of this commerce, young Smith would have been familiar with industry and international trade.

His exact date of birth is unknown, though he was baptised at Kirkcaldy’s Old Kirk on the 5 of June 1723, which is often celebrated as his birthday.

Smith's father, and namesake, Adam Smith, was a local customs officer who passed away shortly before Smith was born. Smith’s mother, Margaret Douglas, was the daughter of Robert Douglas of Strathendry, a wealthy landowner. The widowed Margaret Douglas raised Smith alone and never remarried, forming a close bond with her son which would continue throughout his life. Smith also had one half-brother, named Hugh Smith, from his father’s previous marriage.

Smith displayed academic promise from an early age, and he excelled in his studies. He attended the Burgh School of Kirkcaldy under the tutelage of Mr David Miller, from 1729 to 1737, where he studied mathematics, history, Latin and writing.

He first studied at Glasgow at the age of 14, before going to Oxford. Little is known about Smith's time at Oxford. What he read, where he read and who may have instructed him was never recorded. Though Smith remained in Oxford for six years, he was not impressed by the teaching style and found it paled in comparison to Glasgow’s more rigorous methods. Orthodox Church of England Oxford did not have the same stimulating atmosphere as Glasgow, an expanding, industrialising city.

In 1746 Smith returned to Kirkcaldy and convalesced for a year. During this period, Lord Kames, a senior judge and leading figure in Scotland’s cultural life, encouraged Smith to produce a series of public lectures in Edinburgh. They were very wel

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Adam Smith

1723-1790

With The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith installed himself as the leading expositor of economic thought. Currents of Adam Smith run through the works published by David Ricardo and Karl Marx in the nineteenth century, and by John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman in the twentieth.

Adam Smith was born in a small village in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, where his widowed mother raised him. At age fourteen, as was the usual practice, he entered the University of Glasgow on scholarship. He later attended Balliol College at Oxford, graduating with an extensive knowledge of European literature and an enduring contempt for English schools.

He returned home, and after delivering a series of well-received lectures was made first chair of logic (1751), then chair of moral philosophy (1752), at Glasgow University.

He left academia in 1764 to tutor the young duke of Buccleuch. For more than two years they traveled throughout France and into Switzerland, an experience that brought Smith into contact with his contemporaries Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, François Quesnay, and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. With the life pension he had earned in the service of the duke, Smith retired to his birthplace of Kirkcaldy to write The Wealth of Nations. It was published in 1776, the same year the American Declaration of Independence was signed and in which his close friend David Hume died. In 1778 he was appointed commissioner of customs. In this job he helped enforce laws against smuggling. In The Wealth of Nations, he had defended smuggling as a legitimate activity in the face of “unnatural” legislation. Adam Smith never married. He died in Edinburgh on July 19, 1790.

Today Smith’s reputation rests on his explanation of how rational self-interest

Adam Smith was an 18th-century Scottish economist, philosopher, and author who is considered the father of modern economics. Smith argued against mercantilism and was a major proponent of laissez-faire economic policies. In his first book, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", Smith proposed the idea of an invisible hand—the tendency of free markets to regulate themselves using competition, supply and demand, and self-interest.

Biography

The recorded history of Smith's life begins at his baptism on June 5, 1723, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. His exact birthdate is undocumented, but he was raised by his mother, Margaret Douglas, after the death of his father, Adam Smith. He attended the University of Glasgow at the age of 13 and attended Balliol College at Oxford University, where he studied European literature.

After returning to Scotland, Smith held a series of public lectures at the University of Edinburgh. The success of his lecture series helped him earn a professorship at Glasgow University in 1751. He eventually earned the position of Chair of Logic in 1751 and then Chair of Moral Philosophy in 1752. During his years spent teaching and working at Glasgow, Smith worked on getting some of his lectures published. His book, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", was eventually