Editing Adam Smith (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===

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 is OS; 5 June is NS. -->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]], Smith's biographer, 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 [[free speech]]. In 1740, he was the graduate scholar presented to undertake postgraduate studies at [[Balliol College, 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=81-224-1830-9 |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 University 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 [[University of Cambridge|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" />

[[File:Adam Smith's mother.JPG|thumb|upright=0.75|Portrait of Smith's mother, Margaret Douglas]]

===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 University teaching [[logic]] courses, and in 1752, he was elected a member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, having been introduced to the society by 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 the [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury|Third Lord 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=9780226661896 |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 British 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 [[Pound sterling|£]]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 with the 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 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 of France|Louis&nbsp;XIV]]{{efn|During the reign of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis&nbsp;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 of France|Louis&nbsp;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 Edinburgh's [[Canongate]].<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.