Speaking of Smith Archives

From Pins to Patterns: Following the Threads of Productivity

June 1, 2023

Adam Smith and Virginia Postrel share a common thread. Both authors recognize the significance of specialization and the division of labor in creating productivity and progress.

Adam Smith Comics: The Race

May 30, 2023

Races must be won with virtue if you want the spectators to cheer.

Adam Smith Comics: The Butcher, The Baker, and the Brewer

May 25, 2023

How does an economist explain the glory of food trucks to a curious kid—at bedtime?

Adam Smith Comics: Science is the Great Antidote

June 22, 2023

"Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition."

Adam Smith Comics: Trinkets of Frivolous Utility

May 18, 2023

Many people associate Adam Smith with the idea that greed is good but Smith is very critical of individuals who pursue greedy ambitions even while acknowledging that their activities can benefit and be good for others. Our newest comic imagines a particularly awful couple of characters that Smith criticizes in The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

What Adam Smith Ate (& Drank!): Claret, Part 2

May 16, 2023

Adam Smith knew first-hand about the Bordeaux wine growing region and he factored his knowledge of wine and agriculture into An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

What Adam Smith Ate (& Drank!): Claret

May 15, 2023

"Smith’s use of wine to demonstrate everything from supply and demand, costs of goods, duties, and tariffs arguably made him the first wine economist tracking values, appreciation, and retail prices."

Adam Smith Comics: Man of System

May 11, 2023

"[The Man of System] seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess–board."

Adam Smith Comics: The Opening of The Theory of Moral Sentiments

May 8, 2023

There are many famous first lines from novels. We think Adam Smith's philosophical opening is just as deserving of recognition.

Adam Smith Would Not Approve of Logan Roy

May 4, 2023

During Succession’s first season, Adam Smith is explicitly referenced when in a social gathering some guests are discussing the ideas of Smith and Karl Marx. Scotland itself was bound to appear in a later episode when the Roy clan visits Dundee for a triumphal celebration of Logan Roy’s life achievements...It is also a commentary on power and corruption...

Adam Smith Comics: The Invisible Hand

May 2, 2023

Have you ever wondered what an invisible hand looks like?

Adam Smith Stories: Too Interesting to be Omitted

Learn more about the one incident from Smith's childhood that has made it through the veils of time: his abduction and rescue from when he was four years old.