Update (11/20): The post was slightly revised on Nov. 20, 2020. (Previously, this blog post corresponded to footnote 16 of my “Adam Smith in Love” paper, but with subsequent revisions of my paper, it has now become footnote 24.)

Footnote 24 of my work-in-progress addresses the tradition of going on a “Grand Tour of Europe,” a rite of passage in which many young British aristocrats, with their appointed tutors in tow, would travel to Italy and France during the 18th Century:

“… In setting off for France with his tutor Adam Smith, the future Duke and the future father of modern price theory were following an elite and well-established tradition, for the Grand Tour was a rite of passage of the sons of elite British families as well as ‘the “crown” of [their] education.’ (See Cohen (2001), p. 129. See also Brodsky-Porges, 1981, p. 178, quoting Ogilvie, 1939.) Michèle Cohen (1992, 2001) has explored the educational and cultural ideals of the Grand Tour and has identified many deep ‘contradictions and ambiguities’ of these tours. In addition, the sexual aspect of European Grand Tours by young British aristocrats (and their tutors?) during this era should also not go unnoticed. See, e.g., Chapter 5 of Black, 2011 [1985], which is titled ‘Love, Sex, Gambling, and Drinking.’ See also Black, 1981, p. 660 & p. 666, n.7; Black, 1983, pp. 413-414; Cohen, 1992, pp. 255-256.”

Below are my sources:

Jeremy Black, “British Travellers in Europe in the Early Eighteenth Century,” Dalhousie Review, Vol. 61, No. 4 (1981), pp. 655–667.

___________, “France and the Grand Tour in the Early Eighteenth Century,” Francia, Vol. 11 (1983), pp. 407–416.

___________, The British and the Grand Tour, Croom Helm (2011) [1985].

Edward Brodsky-Porges, “The Grand Tour: Travel as an Educational Device, 1600–1800,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1981), pp. 171–186.

Michèle Cohen, “The Grand Tour: Constructing the English Gentleman in Eighteenth-Century France,” History of Education, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1992), pp. 241-257.

___________, “The Grand Tour: Language, National Identity, and Masculinity,” Changing English: Studies in Culture and Education, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2001), pp. 129-141.