AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF ADAM SMITH Gavin Kennedy An Authentic Account of Adam Smith Gavin Kennedy An Authentic Account of Adam Smith Gavin Kennedy Edinburgh, UK ISBN 978-3-319-63801-0 ISBN 978-3-319-63802-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63802-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949478 © Te Editor(s) (if applicable) and Te Author(s) 2017 Tis work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Te use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Te publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Te publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afliations. Cover credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper Tis Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature Te registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Te registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Archie Morrice and Alexander Rolland Exhibits List Chapter “Adam Smith on Metaphors” Exhibit no 1: Adam Smith’s Figures of Speech and Metaphors in Te Teory of Moral Sentiments (6th edition: 1790) Exhibit no 2: Adam Smith’s use of Figures of Speech and Metaphors in the Wealth of Nations Chapter “Adam Smith and the ‘Invisible Hand’” Exhibit 3: Some General Teological References to ‘an Invisible Hand’, from Ancient Times to the eighteenth-century Exhibit 4: Early Post-Smithian References to the ‘Invisible Hand’ 1857– 1899 Exhibit 5: Some of Smith’s Examples of Entrepreneurial Actions that Detrimentally Afected Te Public Good Chapter “Smith’s Alleged Religiosity” Exhibit 6 Teology References in Wealth of Nations Exhibit 7 Teology References in TMS vii Preface Academic authors owe much to their peers and predecessors. My frst conversation on Adam Smith was with the late Professor Andrew Skinner of Glasgow University, whom I met when we both happened to visit the department of economics at Strathclyde University, where I had been an undergraduate and postgraduate student in the 1960s. I was then a lecturer in economics at Brunel University in West London. We fell into conversation and I mentioned my preparatory work on a series of lectures on the economics of defence for UK senior Army ofc- ers, at Te National Defence College, Latimer, having been assigned by my then head of department, Professor John Vaizey, to stand in at short notice because the regular lecturer was seriously ill. Andrew recom- mended opening with Adam Smith’s statements on defence in Wealth of Nations as the ‘frst duty of the sovereign that of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies, by means of mili- tary force’. [WN V.1.a.1 p 689]. I took Andrew’s advice and read the relevant chapter in Wealth of Nations. Tis eventually led to my abiding interest in the life and Works of Adam Smith. When Andrew and I met over the following decades at seminars and conferences on the history of economic thought, or when ix x Preface we conversed by telephone, we discussed aspects of Adam Smith’s life and Works, of which Andrew was the leading authority. I owe much in the approach that follows herein to Andrew’s insight and advice, and to his many publications, though I exculpate him completely for any errors or omissions that may have crept into what follows. I also developed a close academic relationship with the late Professor Ian Simpson Ross, whose Te Life of Adam Smith (2005) is the defni- tive biography of Adam Smith. I had the pleasure of occasional face-to- face discussions with Ian when he visited his native country of Scotland from his home in Vancouver, Canada, his lovely soft Dundonian Scot’s accent as clear as if he had never left Dundee. We also exchanged cor- respondence on Adam Smith, for which help and insights, I was both grateful and encouraged. Another infuence on my thinking came from a talk I gave in Edinburgh on Adam Smith, after which I was approached by Norman Butcher, a geologist and tutor at the Open University, whose inter- est was in James Hutton, the early geologist and Enlightenment col- league of Adam Smith. For many years afterwards Norman became a signifcant element in my unfolding interests in the Enlightenment. I accompanied Norman on several feld visits to important geologi- cal sites at Edinburgh’s extinct volcano where Hutton’s excavations can still be seen and down the coast to Siccar Point, where sea erosion had exposed the powerful efects of geological forces on molten rock for- mations in very ancient times, known as ‘Hutton’s unconformity’. Norman and I regularly conversed, and his enthusiasm for knowledge about Hutton matched mine for Smith. He provided insights into how the Enlightenment was a cooperative efort by a unique group of Edinburgh’s fnest eighteenth-century scholars. Other scholarly infuences, to whom I owe much for their insights and opinions, and, indeed, also for their criticism of my interpre- tations, include Dr. Craig Smith, Profs. Christopher Berry, Keith Lumsden, Alec Scott, Ryan Hanley, Sandra Peart, Mark Blaug, Paul Walker, Brandon Dupont, Daniel B. Klein, Paul Oslington, and Sir Alan Peacock, though these conversations revealed many scholarly dif- ferences in our approaches to Adam Smith and his Works. However, I Preface xi must record that despite our occasional diferences of interpretation, I beneftted from their insights, challenges and perspectives. Of course, authors must be aware of how much they owe to the pro- fessional expertise of a publisher’s staf. Palgrave is no exception. Tis is my third book with Palgrave and as with the frst two, writing it has been a pleasurable experience. Edinburgh, UK Gavin Kennedy Acknowledgements Te prime source to Adam Smith is the Glasgow Edition of the the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (©), Oxford University Press, reproduced with the permission of Oxford University Press. CORR Correspondence of Adam Smith 1987 ed. E. C. Mossner, Ian Simpson Ross, 2nd edition. ED Early Draft of Wealth of Nations 1763 included in Lectures on Jurisprudence. EPS Essays on Philosophical Subjects 1795 (posthumous) ed. W. D. Wightman J. C. Bryce. LJ Lectures on Jurisprudence, 1983, ed. R. L. Meek, D.D. Raphael, P.G.Stein. LRBL Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres 1983, ed. J. C. Bryce Includes Considerations Concerning the First Formation of original and compound Languages [1761] TMS Te Teory of Moral Sentiments (1759) 1976. D. D, Raphael, A. L. Macfe. WN An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [1776] 1976, ed. R. H. Campbell, A. S. Skinner, W. B. Todd xiii Contents Introduction 1 How Adam Smith Learned to Bargain 9 Adam Smith on Rhetoric and Perspicuity 35 Adam Smith on Metaphors 57 Adam Smith and the ‘Invisible Hand’ 79 Te Social Evolution of Jurisprudence 117 Smith’s Wealth of Nations 141 Smith’s Alleged Religiosity 163 Bibliography 197 Index 207 xv Introduction Tis Authentic Account of Adam Smith may surprise those readers whose knowledge of a rightly venerated, eighteenth-century scholar is based solely on modern accounts of his life and scholarship. Typical of the myths repeated daily is that Adam Smith ‘coined’ the idea of an ‘Invisible Hand’, that he believed in ‘laissez-faire’, supported abso- lutely minimal government, and that theologically he was a Christian believer. Other quite erroneous ideas of his role that continue to cir- culate include honorary titles that he was the ‘father’ of capitalism, a wholly nineteenth-century phenomenon that developed after he had died in 1790 and which has signifcantly metamorphosed qualitatively and in global infuence in the twentieth and twenty-frst centuries. Knowledge of the authentic Adam Smith, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland in 1723 and who died in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, in 1790, can be enlightening. Te authentic Adam Smith was a much more interesting scholar than his several fctional counterparts. Tis is not a new biography of Adam Smith, whose life is well-served with fve major biographies since 1793 (Stewart 1793; Rae 1895; Scott 1937; Phillipson 2010; Ross 2010). Tere are other well-written, though wholly derivative, shorter contributions, published in the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries (Haldane 1887; Hirst 1904). © Te Author(s) 2017 1 G. Kennedy, An Authentic Account of Adam Smith, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63802-7_1 2 G. Kennedy With a plethora of biographical sources available, plus all of Smith’s known scholarly publications, it may be asked legitimately, if there is room for another study of Adam Smith’s place in the disciplines most closely associated with him. I ofer two main reasons for my Authentic Account of Adam Smith. Te actual Adam Smith of popular celebration was born in Kirkcaldy, lived and died in Scotland, with relatively short episodes outside Scotland, mainly in England, and for a short period in France and Switzerland.