The Life of Adam Smith Simplified on Superphysics

Early Days at Kirkcaldy

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1723-1737

Adam Smith was born at Kirkcaldy, in the county of Fife, Scotland, on June 5, 1723. His father was also named Adam Smith who was=

a native of Aberdeen,
a Writer to the Signet,
a Judge Advocate for Scotland, and
a Comptroller of the Customs in the Kirkcaldy district.

His mother was Margaret, daughter of John Douglas of Strathendry, a considerable landed proprietor in Fife.

Student at Glasgow College

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1737-1740

Smith entered Glasgow College in October 1737 and remained there until spring 1740. Back then, the arts curriculum spanned over five sessions. Thus, Smith did not complete the course required for a degree.

At Oxford

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Smith left Scotland for Oxford in June 1740, riding the whole way on horseback. He told Samuel Rogers many years afterwards that, from the moment he crossed the Border he was much struck with:

Lecturer at Edinburgh

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At Oxford

Smith returned to Scotland probably to get a Scotch university chair eventually. But he thought in the meantime to get a job as a traveling tutor to the Duke of Buccleugh, who was a ranking and wealthy young man. It was then a much-desired and a highly-paid job.

Smith the Poet

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Smith seems to have dreamed of becoming a poet when he was young.

Stewart says:

Glasgow Professor

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The Edinburgh lectures soon bore fruit.

Mr. Loudon was the Professor of Logic in Glasgow College.

On his death in 1750, Smith was appointed to the vacant chair and began 13 years of active academic work.

It was by far the happiest, most useful, and honourable period of Smith’s life. The appointment was done by a section of the Senatus called the Faculty Professors. Some of them had been Smith’s teachers 10 years before and knew him well. The choice was unanimous.

College Administrator

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A common misconception was that Smith was helpless in business.

One of his Edinburgh neighbours told Robert Chambers that Smith wrote so well on exchange and barter. But that it was strange that he was obliged to get a friend to buy his horse corn for him.

Among Glasgow Folk

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In Glasgow, Smith was a teacher and a learner. The conditions of time and place were most favourable for his instruction.

Had he remained at Oxford, he would probably never have been an economist. had he not spent so many of his best years in Glasgow, he would never have been such an eminent one. He grew into a great economist amid=

Edinburgh Activities

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During his stay in Glasgow, Smith maintained intimate relations with his old friends in Edinburgh.

He often visited them by coach even if the journey took 13 hours before the road was improved. He spent most of his many successive vacations among them.
He actively promoted some literary, scientific, and social improvement projects then widespread in Scotland.
His patron was Henry Home.

In 1752, Mr. Home was raised to the bench as Lord Kames. He did works of criticism and speculation which soon gave him European fame. David Hume had settled for a time as a librarian to the Faculty of Advocates after his own defeat at Glasgow. He was writing his History of England in the Canongate.

The Select Society

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The Select Society imitated the academies which were then common in the larger French towns. It was partly:

a debating society for discussing topics of the day
a patriotic society for promoting Scotland’s arts, sciences, and manufactures.

The idea was first mooted by Allan Ramsay, the painter.

The Select Society

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In September 1759, on the death of Mr. Townshend’s brother, Smith wrote him the following letter:

Sir—

It gives me great concern that the first letter I ever have done myself the honour to write to you should be upon so melancholy an occasion. As your Brother was generally known here, he is universally regretted, Your friends are sorry that, amidst the public rejoicings and prosperity, your family should have occasion to be in mourning. Everybody here remembers you with the greatest admiration and affection. Nothing that concerns you is indifferent to them. There are more people who sympathise with you than you are aware of. It would be the greatest pedantry to offer any topics of consolation to you who are naturally so firm and so manly. As your Brother dyed in the service of his country, you have the best and the noblest consolation: That since it has pleased God to deprive you of the satisfaction you might have expected from the continuance of his life, it has at least been so ordered that ye manner of his death does you honour.

The Select Society

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The Select Society was more than a debating club.

It aimed to promote the arts, sciences, manufactures, and agriculture in Scotland.

After 10 months, it established a well-devised and extensive scheme of prizes for meritorious work, supported by voluntary subscriptions.

The Select Society Dies Because of English

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But, useful and active and celebrated as it was, the Select Society died after 10 years it started because of Charles Townshend’s sarcasm.

Townshend was brought to hear one of the wonderful debates, which were thought to reflect a new glory on Edinburgh.

Theory of Moral Sentiments

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Smith enjoyed a very high Scotch reputation long before his name was known to the public by any literary contribution.

But in 1759 he gave his Theory of Moral Sentiments to the press.

The Edinburgh Review

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The Select Society wanted to improve Scotch literature:

“The idea was that to show men at this stage of the country’s progress that the gradual advance of science would encourage them to learn in order to do honour to their country.”

First Visit to London

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Smith visited London for the first time in September 1761, when Hume and his other Scotch friends were already there. He had not visited London in the seven years’ he was at Oxford. He never left Oxford during that time. (The Balliol Buttery Books) He had not visited London in the first 10 years he spent in Glasgow, otherwise the University would have had some record of it. (Mr. Rogers) Glasgow University had much business to transact in London then.

The New Edinburgh Review: Hume Versus the Church

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A new literary review is started in Edinburgh by Hume and a few of his younger friends.

Hume was the most distinguished man of letters then in Scotland.

He is neither asked to contribute to the periodical, nor even admitted to the secret of its origination.

The Poker Club and a Scottish Militia

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Smith was one of the founders of the Edinburgh Poker Club in 1762.

Most people think of it as merely a social society.

Mr. Burton says that its purpose was to drink claret.

But it was really a committee for political agitation, like the Anti-Corn-Law League or the Home Rule Union.

Last Year In Glasgow

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Rev. William Ward of Broughton was the chaplain to the Marquis of Rockingham.

In 1763, he brought out his Essay on Grammar.

Sir William Hamilton thought that it was “perhaps the most philosophical essay on the English language extant,”

Smith in Toulouse

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Smith joined his pupil in London in the end of January 1764. They set out for France in the start of February.

They remained abroad 2.5 years=

10 days in Paris,
18 months in Toulouse,
2 months traveling in the South of France,
2 months in Geneva, and
10 months in Paris again.

Smith kept no journal and wrote as few letters as possible. But from various sources, we can fill in some of the outlines of their travel.

Smith in Geneva

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In the end of August, Smith and his pupils left Toulouse and made an extensive tour in the South of France. (Stewart) No other record remains of this tour.

Lady Mary Coke was the Duke’s aunt. She mentions that when they were at Marseilles they visited the porcelain factory. The Duke bought two of the largest services ever sold there, for which he paid more than £150 sterling. They seem to have arrived in Geneva some time in October. They stayed about two months there.

Smith in Paris

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Smith left Geneva in December for Paris and arrived around Christmas 1765 (Dugald Stewart).

The Rev. William Cole was in Paris in October 1765. He notes in his journal on October 26 that the Duke of Buccleugh arrived in Paris that day from Spa along with the Earl and Countess of Fife;

Smith Back in London

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Smith arrived in London early in November and remained there for the next 6 months.

He brought the body of his pupil who was ultimately buried in the family vault at Dalkeith, (Dr. Norman Macleod and Mr. Steel)

Smith Back in Kirkcaldy

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When Smith left Glasgow, his mother and cousin went back again to Kirkcaldy. He remained with them there for the next 11 years.

Hume thought that the countryside was unsuitable for a man of letters. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to move to Edinburgh. But Smith had everything he needed in Kirkcaldy=

Smith in London to Publish

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1773-1776. Aet. 50-53

In the spring of 1773, Smith virtually completed the Wealth of Nations. He thought of going to London with the manuscript, to give it to a publisher.

The Wealth Of Nations

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The Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was at length published on March 9, 1776.

Bishop Horne was one of Smith’s antagonists.

The Death of Hume

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After the publication of his book in the beginning of March, Smith still dallied in London, without going to see Hume in Edinburgh then bring him to London.

London 1777—Appointed Commissioner Of Customs

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Smith remained at Kirkcaldy from May to December 1776, except for occasional visits to Edinburgh or Dalkeith.

But his thoughts, were again bent on London, as soon as his mother’s health allowed him to leave home. He seems to have enjoyed London. It inspired some hopes in friends like Strahan that he might even settle there permanently. After his departure for Scotland in April, Strahan used to write him of political news keeping him abreast of all that was going on.

Edinburgh 1778

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On settling in Edinburgh, Smith took a house in the Canongate—Panmure House.

It was at the foot of Panmure Close, one of the steep and narrow wynds that descend from the north side of the Canongate towards the base of the Calton Hill.

This house was his home for the rest of his days.

1778 Letters

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Soon after Smith settled in Edinburgh, he received a presentation copy of a new edition of Maximes from his old French friends=

the Duchesse d’Enville and
the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, her son.

It was written by François de La Rochefoucauld, their ancestor. It was accompanied by the following letter from the Duke himself. He informs Smith that despite of the way François is mentioned in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, the Duke once tried to translate it.

Free Trade for Ireland

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In 1779, Smith was consulted by the Government on the probable effects of the contemplated concession of free trade to Ireland.

Two letters of Smith still remain=

one to the Earl of Carlisle, First Lord of Trade and Plantations, and
the other to Henry Dundas—which state his views on this subject.

The policy of commercial restriction was most cruelly used against the Irish between the Restoration (1660) and the Union (1707).

Wealth of Nations Abroad and Home

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These communications with leading statesmen were showing the impression that the Wealth of Nations had made in this country. Smith was receiving equally satisfactory proofs of its recognition abroad. The book had been translated into Danish in two volumes by F. Dräbye in 1779-80. Apparently, he contemplated publishing a second edition.

Smith Interviewed

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In his letter to Cadell, Smith reproaches himself with his idleness during his first few years in Edinburgh. He had bought a good many new books in London, or new editions of old ones,

The American Question

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Smith continued to be a:

warm political supporter of the Rockingham Whigs and
a warm opponent of the North ministry.

This was despite=

the patronage he received from Lord North and
his friendship with the Duke of Buccleugh and Henry Dundas

The first Earl of Minto (then Sir Gilbert Elliot) visited Edinburgh in 1782. He wrote in his journal=

Burke in Scotland

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Burke had been elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow in November 1783 in succession to Dundas. He came to Scotland to be installed in the following April. He spent 8 or 10 days in Smith’s company.

The Population Question

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Dr. Richard Price had recently stirred a sensation by his attempt to prove that England’s population=

was declining, and
had actually declined nearly 30% since the Revolution.

The first to go against him was William Eden. Eden’s Fifth Letter to the Earl of Carlisle was published in 1780. It exposes the weakness of Price’s statistics. It argues that both England’s population and trade had increased. Price replied to these criticisms in the same year.

Visit to London

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In April, he had improved enough to travel to London to consult Hunter.

But he was wasted to a skeleton.

William Playfair:

was brother of his friend the Professor of Mathematics
was one of the early editors of the Wealth of Nations
met Smith soon after his arrival in London

The British Society for extending the Fisheries

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In 1786, the British Society for extending the Fisheries was incorporated for that purpose by Royal Charter with a capital of £150,000.

It has the Duke of Argyle for Governor and many leading personages for directors.

At Balliol

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Unlike Gibbon and Bentham, Smith never thought that his 6 years at Oxford were wasted.

Boswell and others have called him ungrateful for his censures on Oxford.

But that charge is unreasonable because the censures were true and useful.

I refer to it here merely to point out that Smith felt and publicly expressed gratitude for his residence at the University of Oxford.

Visit to Samuel Rodgers

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Samuel Rogers was the author of the Pleasures of Memory. He went to Scotland to make its ‘home tour’. It was then much in vogue.

He brought with him letters of introduction to Smith from Dr. Price and Dr. Kippis. Dr. Kippis was the editor of the Biographia Britannica. Rogers, a poet, was then 23.

Revision of The Theory of Moral Sentiments

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Smith had long contemplated revising the Theory of Moral Sentiments which had been around for 30 years with five editions.

But it never went through any revision. This was the task of the last year of his life. He made considerable changes, especially by addition. He wrote the additions while he was under severe illness.

Smith's Last Days

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The new edition of the Theory was Smith’s last published work. A French newspaper, the Moniteur Universelle of Paris, announced on March 11, 1790 that Smith would do a critical examination of Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois.