Adam Smith (1723 - 1790)
A TIMELINE OF THE LIFE OF ADAM SMITH AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE KEY EVENTS OF HIS AGE
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1723 Adam Smith born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, the posthumous son of Adam Smith (former Private Secretary to the Principal Secretary of State for Scotland and Controller of the Customs at Kirkcaldy) and his wife Margaret Douglas
Death of architect Sir Christopher Wren*
1724 Philosopher Immanuel Kant born
1725 Black Watch regiment founded in Scotland
1726 Adam Smith kidnapped by tinkers but recovered by his uncle
Jonathan Swift* publishes Gulliver’s Travels
1727 Physicist Sir Isaac Newton dies
First Indemnity Act allows religions non-conformists to hold offices under the Crown
1728 James Bradley discovers astronomical aberration
1729 Edmund Burke, scholar and father of modern conservatism, is born
1730 John and Charles Wesley found the Methodists
1731 Martha Washington born
Erasmus Darwin* born
1732 Covent Garden Opera is founded
1733 John Kay invents the Flying Shuttle
Jethro Tull publishes on new agricultural methods
Alexander Pope* publishes Essay on Man
1734 Rob Roy MacGregor dies
Handel’s opera Ariodante premieres in London
1735 Carolus Linnaeus publishes his System of Nature
1736 Isaac Newton publishes his Method of Fluxions
Capital punishment for witchcraft ends in Britain
1737 Adam Smith enters Glasgow University, studying moral philosophy under Professor Francis Hutcheson
1738 Franz Ketterer invents the cuckoo clock
1739 The War of Jenkins’ Ear between Britain and Spain starts
Philosopher David Hume publishes A Treatise of Human Nature
1740 Adam Smith Enters Balliol College, Oxford as Snell Exhibitioner
Frederick the Great becomes King of Prussia
1741 Jean-Baptiste Rousseau dies
1742 Fall of Walpole as Britain’s first Prime Minister
1743 George II, last British king to command his army in the field, defeats France
1744 The First Saudi State founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud
1745 Satirist Jonathan Swift* dies
Jacobite rebellion under Prince Charles Edward Stuart
1746 Adam Smith leaves Oxford and returns to Kirkcaldy
1747 Samuel Johnson* begins work his Dictionary
1748 Adam Smith is invited to lecture on belle-lettres and jurisprudence in Edinburgh under Lord Kames
David Hume publishes his Philosophical Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Charles Louis de Montesquieu publishes his Spirit of the Laws
1749 English physician Edward Jenner* born
1750 Death of composer J S Bach
Adam Smith meets David Hume, who becomes a close friend
1751 Adam Smith is elected Professor of Logic at Glasgow University
1752 Adam Smith transfers to the Chair of Logic and Rhetoric at Glasgow University
Britain adopts the New Style calendar
1753 The British Museum is established
1754 Author Henry Fielding dies
1755 The Lisbon earthquake
1756 Burke publishes A Vindication of Natural Society
Seven Years' War begins
1757 Writer, poet and artist William Blake is born
William Pitt the Elder, as Secretary of State, becomes the main influence in the British government
1758 French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre born
1759 Adam Smith publishes his Theory of Moral Sentiments at the age of 36
F.M.A. Voltaire* publishes Candide
Joseph Priestly publishes The History and Present State of Electricity
1760 George III becomes King of Great Britain
1761 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star published in France
1762 Catherine the Great becomes Czarina
Jean-Jacques Rousseau* publishes The Social Contract
1763 Peace of Paris
1764 Adam Smith leaves Glasgow to become tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch on the Grand Tour of Europe, where he meets Voltaire*, Franklin*, Quesnay and other prominent intellectuals
James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny
John Wilkes* is expelled from the House of Commons
1765 The Stamp Act, a tax measure that helped precipitate the American Revolution, is passed by Parliament
1766 Adam Smith returns from the Grand Tour, is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and begins work on The Wealth of Nations
Henry Cavendish proves hydrogen to be an element
1767 Adam Ferguson publishes Essay on the History of Civil Society, the precursor of modern social science
1768 The Royal Academy of Arts is founded
1769 Sir William Blackstone publishes his Commentaries on the Law of England
Richard Arkwright builds his water-powered spinning mill
1770 Captain James Cook discovers New South Wales
Poet William Wordsworth is born
1771 First edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica
1772 British economist David Recardo born
Poland partitioned between Russia and Prussia
1773 The Boston Tea Party protests against British taxes on the Colonies
1774 Chlorine and oxygen discovered
1775 Novelist Jane Austen is born
James Watt* begins work on his improved steam engine
1776 Adam Smith moves to London and meets Enlightenment figures such as Reynolds, Garrick* and Johnson*
The Wealth of Nations is published
Edward Gibbon* publishes first Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
American Declaration of Independence
David Hume dies
1777 British surrender to the Americans at Saratoga
1778 Adam Smith is appointed Commissioner of Customs for Scotland and moves back to Edinburgh to live with his mother
Deaths of Voltaire* and Rousseau*
1779 Samuel Crompton invents the Spinning Mule
David Hume’s Dialogues of Natural Religion published posthumously
1780 British take Charleston in the Revolutionary War
1781 British troops surrender at Yorktown
Joseph II abolishes serfdom in Austria
1782 Italian composer Nicolo Paganini born
1783 Smith becomes a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Treaty of Versailles: American independence is recognised
First flights in hot air (Montgolfier*) and hydrogen (Charles) balloons
William Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister
1784 Death of Dr Samuel Johnson*
1785 Power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright
1786 Robert Burns* publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
1787 Founding Fathers draft the American Constitution
1788 Impeachment proceedings begin against Warren Hastings
1789 Mutiny aboard HMS Bounty
George Washington* becomes first President of the United States
The Bastille is stormed and the French Revolution begins
1790 Adam Smith dies after a painful illness, and is buried in the Canongate cemetery in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile
Edmund Burke* publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France
Ed. Note: In the above list Freemasons are marked with an asterisk*
An excellent short bigraphy, printed here, is that on the lucidcafe website which in the final sentence gives an insight into the masonic character of the man.
ADAM SMITH
Philosopher, 1723 - 1790
Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. The exact date of his birth is unknown, however, he was baptized on June 5, 1723. Smith was the Scottish philosopher who became famous for his book, The Wealth of Nations written in 1776, which had a profound influence on modern economics and concepts of individual freedom.
In 1751, Smith was appointed professor of logic at Glasgow university, transferring in 1752 to the chair of moral philosophy. His lectures covered the field of ethics, rhetoric, jurisprudence and political economy, or “police and revenue.†In 1759 he published his Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures. This work was about those standards of ethical conduct that hold society together, with emphasis on the general harmony of human motives and activities under a beneficent Providence.
Smith moved to London in 1776, where he published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which examined in detail the consequences of economic freedom. It covered such concepts as the role of self-interest, the division of labor, the function of markets, and the international implications of a laissez-faire economy. Wealth of Nations established economics as an autonomous subject and launched the economic doctrine of free enterprise.
Smith laid the intellectual framework that explained the free market and still holds true today. He is most often recognized for the expression the invisible hand, which he used to demonstrate how self-interest guides the most efficient use of resources in a nation's economy, with public welfare coming as a by-product. To underscore his laissez-faire convictions, Smith argued that state and personal efforts, to promote social good are ineffectual compared to unbridled market forces.
In 1778, he was appointed to a post of commissioner of customs in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died there on July 17, 1790, after an illness. At the end it was discovered that Smith had devoted a considerable part of his income to numerous secret acts of charity.
SOURCE: http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/smith.html
.
1723 Adam Smith born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, the posthumous son of Adam Smith (former Private Secretary to the Principal Secretary of State for Scotland and Controller of the Customs at Kirkcaldy) and his wife Margaret Douglas
Death of architect Sir Christopher Wren*
1724 Philosopher Immanuel Kant born
1725 Black Watch regiment founded in Scotland
1726 Adam Smith kidnapped by tinkers but recovered by his uncle
Jonathan Swift* publishes Gulliver’s Travels
1727 Physicist Sir Isaac Newton dies
First Indemnity Act allows religions non-conformists to hold offices under the Crown
1728 James Bradley discovers astronomical aberration
1729 Edmund Burke, scholar and father of modern conservatism, is born
1730 John and Charles Wesley found the Methodists
1731 Martha Washington born
Erasmus Darwin* born
1732 Covent Garden Opera is founded
1733 John Kay invents the Flying Shuttle
Jethro Tull publishes on new agricultural methods
Alexander Pope* publishes Essay on Man
1734 Rob Roy MacGregor dies
Handel’s opera Ariodante premieres in London
1735 Carolus Linnaeus publishes his System of Nature
1736 Isaac Newton publishes his Method of Fluxions
Capital punishment for witchcraft ends in Britain
1737 Adam Smith enters Glasgow University, studying moral philosophy under Professor Francis Hutcheson
1738 Franz Ketterer invents the cuckoo clock
1739 The War of Jenkins’ Ear between Britain and Spain starts
Philosopher David Hume publishes A Treatise of Human Nature
1740 Adam Smith Enters Balliol College, Oxford as Snell Exhibitioner
Frederick the Great becomes King of Prussia
1741 Jean-Baptiste Rousseau dies
1742 Fall of Walpole as Britain’s first Prime Minister
1743 George II, last British king to command his army in the field, defeats France
1744 The First Saudi State founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud
1745 Satirist Jonathan Swift* dies
Jacobite rebellion under Prince Charles Edward Stuart
1746 Adam Smith leaves Oxford and returns to Kirkcaldy
1747 Samuel Johnson* begins work his Dictionary
1748 Adam Smith is invited to lecture on belle-lettres and jurisprudence in Edinburgh under Lord Kames
David Hume publishes his Philosophical Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Charles Louis de Montesquieu publishes his Spirit of the Laws
1749 English physician Edward Jenner* born
1750 Death of composer J S Bach
Adam Smith meets David Hume, who becomes a close friend
1751 Adam Smith is elected Professor of Logic at Glasgow University
1752 Adam Smith transfers to the Chair of Logic and Rhetoric at Glasgow University
Britain adopts the New Style calendar
1753 The British Museum is established
1754 Author Henry Fielding dies
1755 The Lisbon earthquake
1756 Burke publishes A Vindication of Natural Society
Seven Years' War begins
1757 Writer, poet and artist William Blake is born
William Pitt the Elder, as Secretary of State, becomes the main influence in the British government
1758 French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre born
1759 Adam Smith publishes his Theory of Moral Sentiments at the age of 36
F.M.A. Voltaire* publishes Candide
Joseph Priestly publishes The History and Present State of Electricity
1760 George III becomes King of Great Britain
1761 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star published in France
1762 Catherine the Great becomes Czarina
Jean-Jacques Rousseau* publishes The Social Contract
1763 Peace of Paris
1764 Adam Smith leaves Glasgow to become tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch on the Grand Tour of Europe, where he meets Voltaire*, Franklin*, Quesnay and other prominent intellectuals
James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny
John Wilkes* is expelled from the House of Commons
1765 The Stamp Act, a tax measure that helped precipitate the American Revolution, is passed by Parliament
1766 Adam Smith returns from the Grand Tour, is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and begins work on The Wealth of Nations
Henry Cavendish proves hydrogen to be an element
1767 Adam Ferguson publishes Essay on the History of Civil Society, the precursor of modern social science
1768 The Royal Academy of Arts is founded
1769 Sir William Blackstone publishes his Commentaries on the Law of England
Richard Arkwright builds his water-powered spinning mill
1770 Captain James Cook discovers New South Wales
Poet William Wordsworth is born
1771 First edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica
1772 British economist David Recardo born
Poland partitioned between Russia and Prussia
1773 The Boston Tea Party protests against British taxes on the Colonies
1774 Chlorine and oxygen discovered
1775 Novelist Jane Austen is born
James Watt* begins work on his improved steam engine
1776 Adam Smith moves to London and meets Enlightenment figures such as Reynolds, Garrick* and Johnson*
The Wealth of Nations is published
Edward Gibbon* publishes first Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
American Declaration of Independence
David Hume dies
1777 British surrender to the Americans at Saratoga
1778 Adam Smith is appointed Commissioner of Customs for Scotland and moves back to Edinburgh to live with his mother
Deaths of Voltaire* and Rousseau*
1779 Samuel Crompton invents the Spinning Mule
David Hume’s Dialogues of Natural Religion published posthumously
1780 British take Charleston in the Revolutionary War
1781 British troops surrender at Yorktown
Joseph II abolishes serfdom in Austria
1782 Italian composer Nicolo Paganini born
1783 Smith becomes a founding member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Treaty of Versailles: American independence is recognised
First flights in hot air (Montgolfier*) and hydrogen (Charles) balloons
William Pitt the Younger becomes Prime Minister
1784 Death of Dr Samuel Johnson*
1785 Power loom invented by Edmund Cartwright
1786 Robert Burns* publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
1787 Founding Fathers draft the American Constitution
1788 Impeachment proceedings begin against Warren Hastings
1789 Mutiny aboard HMS Bounty
George Washington* becomes first President of the United States
The Bastille is stormed and the French Revolution begins
1790 Adam Smith dies after a painful illness, and is buried in the Canongate cemetery in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile
Edmund Burke* publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France
Ed. Note: In the above list Freemasons are marked with an asterisk*
An excellent short bigraphy, printed here, is that on the lucidcafe website which in the final sentence gives an insight into the masonic character of the man.
ADAM SMITH
Philosopher, 1723 - 1790
Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. The exact date of his birth is unknown, however, he was baptized on June 5, 1723. Smith was the Scottish philosopher who became famous for his book, The Wealth of Nations written in 1776, which had a profound influence on modern economics and concepts of individual freedom.
In 1751, Smith was appointed professor of logic at Glasgow university, transferring in 1752 to the chair of moral philosophy. His lectures covered the field of ethics, rhetoric, jurisprudence and political economy, or “police and revenue.†In 1759 he published his Theory of Moral Sentiments, embodying some of his Glasgow lectures. This work was about those standards of ethical conduct that hold society together, with emphasis on the general harmony of human motives and activities under a beneficent Providence.
Smith moved to London in 1776, where he published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which examined in detail the consequences of economic freedom. It covered such concepts as the role of self-interest, the division of labor, the function of markets, and the international implications of a laissez-faire economy. Wealth of Nations established economics as an autonomous subject and launched the economic doctrine of free enterprise.
Smith laid the intellectual framework that explained the free market and still holds true today. He is most often recognized for the expression the invisible hand, which he used to demonstrate how self-interest guides the most efficient use of resources in a nation's economy, with public welfare coming as a by-product. To underscore his laissez-faire convictions, Smith argued that state and personal efforts, to promote social good are ineffectual compared to unbridled market forces.
In 1778, he was appointed to a post of commissioner of customs in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died there on July 17, 1790, after an illness. At the end it was discovered that Smith had devoted a considerable part of his income to numerous secret acts of charity.
SOURCE: http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jun/smith.html
Food For Thought
INTRODUCTION
An article on the ten greatest economists ever to live describes Adam Smith thus
"A key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the giant on whose shoulders subsequent economists have stood. He is best known for The Wealth Of Nations, his 1776 landmark book on economics, published at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution - and was even consulted on economic matters by Pitt The Elder, the Whig politician and Prime Minister. His arguments for free trade, market competition and the morality of private enterprise remain as fresh and influential as when written over 200 years ago. That said, Smith - who studied and later taught at Glasgow University - saw only a limited role for government and was hostile to economic nationalism. However, his arguments have at times been misinterpreted by free marketeers in recent decades. The fact is that he did not believe in 'laissezfaire' (an earlier French doctrine opposing any government intervention in economic matters) - he saw government's sole job as to establish law and justice, and provide for the nation's education and basic infrastructure."
One can best inform people about the brilliance of this man by looking at a short timeline of his life and the events of the world at that time in chronological order.
An article on the ten greatest economists ever to live describes Adam Smith thus
"A key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the giant on whose shoulders subsequent economists have stood. He is best known for The Wealth Of Nations, his 1776 landmark book on economics, published at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution - and was even consulted on economic matters by Pitt The Elder, the Whig politician and Prime Minister. His arguments for free trade, market competition and the morality of private enterprise remain as fresh and influential as when written over 200 years ago. That said, Smith - who studied and later taught at Glasgow University - saw only a limited role for government and was hostile to economic nationalism. However, his arguments have at times been misinterpreted by free marketeers in recent decades. The fact is that he did not believe in 'laissezfaire' (an earlier French doctrine opposing any government intervention in economic matters) - he saw government's sole job as to establish law and justice, and provide for the nation's education and basic infrastructure."
One can best inform people about the brilliance of this man by looking at a short timeline of his life and the events of the world at that time in chronological order.
A FEW QUOTES OF ADAM SMITH
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
Men desire to have some share in the management of public affairs chiefly on account of the importance which it gives them.
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent
Nobody but a beggar chuses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.
Honour makes a great part of the reward of all honourable professions.
Every tax must finally be paid from someone or other of those three different sorts of revenue [rent, profit, or wages], or from all of them indifferently.
It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proprtion to their revenue, but something more than their proportion
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.
Men desire to have some share in the management of public affairs chiefly on account of the importance which it gives them.
Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent
Nobody but a beggar chuses to depend chiefly upon the benevolence of his fellow-citizens.
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.
Honour makes a great part of the reward of all honourable professions.
Every tax must finally be paid from someone or other of those three different sorts of revenue [rent, profit, or wages], or from all of them indifferently.
It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proprtion to their revenue, but something more than their proportion
Every man is, no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care; and as he is fitter to take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit and right that it should be so.
One who is master of all his exercises has no aversion to measure his strength and activity with the strongest.
Before we can feel much for others, we must in some measure be at ease ourselves.
By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.
The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
They are the most frivolous and superficial of mankind who can be much delighted with that praise which they themselves know to be unmerited.
Never complain of that of which it is at all times within your power to rid.
One who is master of all his exercises has no aversion to measure his strength and activity with the strongest.
Before we can feel much for others, we must in some measure be at ease ourselves.
By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.
It is unjust that the whole of society should contribute towards an expence of which the benefit is confined to a part of the society.
The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it.
They are the most frivolous and superficial of mankind who can be much delighted with that praise which they themselves know to be unmerited.
Never complain of that of which it is at all times within your power to rid.
Regard to our own private happiness and interest, too, appear upon many occasions very laudable principles of action.
The first are those whining and melancholy moralists, who are perpetually reproaching us with our happiness, while so many of our brethren are in misery, who regard as impious the natural joy of prosperity, which does not think of the many wretches that are at every instant labouring under all sorts of calamities, in the languor of poverty, in the agony of disease, in the horrors of death, under the insults and oppression of their enemies.
A true party-man hates and despises candour....
This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts
Man is an animal that makes bargains: no ther animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another
There is no art which one goverment sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people
The first are those whining and melancholy moralists, who are perpetually reproaching us with our happiness, while so many of our brethren are in misery, who regard as impious the natural joy of prosperity, which does not think of the many wretches that are at every instant labouring under all sorts of calamities, in the languor of poverty, in the agony of disease, in the horrors of death, under the insults and oppression of their enemies.
A true party-man hates and despises candour....
This is one of those cases in which the imagination is baffled by the facts
Man is an animal that makes bargains: no ther animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another
There is no art which one goverment sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people
