Speaking of Smith Archives

April 28, 2022

Adam Smith, whose father was a customs agent, had practically grown up on the wharf in Kirkaldy, Scotland, By the 1770s, he could see first-hand the how hard it was for small Scottish fisherman to stay afloat.  They were left out of the subsidies and their costs were high. Salt—required for curing and packing herring—was expensive due to its own duties and barrels had doubled in cost due to the American war. To add insult to injury, large fishing companies taking advantage of the tonnage bounties were fishing off the Scottish coasts chasing herring into “sea lochs” previously fished by locals. The price of herring was driven too high for locals, used to a plentiful and varied diet, to afford. 

April 26, 2022


Friedrich Engels makes an abrupt shift with the following statement: “The modern individual family is founded on the open or concealed domestic slavery of the wife, and modern society is a mass composed of these individual families as its molecules.”In the pages that follow, Engels calls for a social revolution as well as the abolishment of monogamy, private property, and the state. It’s a startling shift in the book. Engels’ thesis is that monogamy and its enforcement mechanism, the state, have created irreconcilable class differences that must be eliminated. His ultimate goal is a return to the communistic life and group marriage, which he believes will result in equality between the sexes.

April 21, 2022

Smith sees the need for such a dual-world given there are times when beneficence may need to be forced to “promot[e] the prosperity of the commonwealth, establish good discipline, and…discourage[e] every sort of vice and impropriety” (pg. 81).  Things like requiring parents to care for their children, children to care for elderly parents, or building party walls to avoid spreading fire (TMS 81, WN 324) should be compelled through force. 

April 19, 2022


Cream crowdie is a dish of whipped cream, sweetened oats and berries, not to be confused with trifle which includes custard and sometimes cake. It's a perfect light dessert to follow a heavy meal and exactly the sort of Scottish dish Smith might have served at a Sunday supper or enjoyed at an Oyster Club dinner just as the conversation was going well. 

April 14, 2022


The West’s decision to sanction Russia’s superrich makes sense given Smith’s account, on the one hand, because of the general tendency to admire and worship the rich. If the wealthiest are punished, so with them goes public opinion, perhaps swaying Putin.... On the other hand, Smith tells us our tendency to admire the rich and great also causes us to look the other way when they behave badly. 

April 12, 2022


Smith posited that there is a moral economy in trade, not just an economic one. We learn what kinds of behaviors are acceptable as we engage in both conversational and material exchange with others.

April 9, 2022


Colleagues Behaving Badly? Adam Smith Suggests Self-Command

April 4, 2022


Had my grandfather only been lucky enough to experience Adam Smith’s system of natural liberty, our family history might look very different.

March 29, 2022


The Smith Questionnaire is a fun way to learn about Adam Smith and those who study and enjoy him.  As Women's History month wraps up, take 5-10 minutes to learn a little more from the women of the Smith Questionnaire.

March 23, 2022

March 22, 2022


Adam Smith wrote about international relations, national defense and military strategy in both The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. Smith believed in the critical importance of nations’ good relations (diplomacy), strong communication and mutually beneficial trade as institutions necessary for the growth and prosperity.

March 17, 2022


Jane Austen isn’t the first name that comes to mind when we think of capitalism, the Industrial Revolution, or the moral side of the pursuit of wealth. But the England in which she lived and wrote her six extraordinary novels was deeply affected by the economic and social changes that Smith described in The Wealth of Nations. In this final post, I turn to an interrogation of rationality and the limits of our ability to predict the future, especially the economic future, and the necessity of living with our failed speculations.