My previous post describes Adam Smith’s “lost years” as a customs officer, while my next post will wrap up my review of Walter Bagehot’s beautiful and erudite essay “Adam Smith as a Person”; in the meantime, below are links to several scholarly works that further explore Smith’s 12-year stint as a Commissioner of Scottish Customs:

1. A paper titled “Adam Smith in the Customhouse” by Gary M. Anderson, William F. Shugart II, and Robert D. Tollison.

2. A book chapter titled “Commissioner of Customs” by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner.

3. Another book chapter titled “Economic Theorist as Commissioner of Customs” by Ian Simpson Ross.

Bonus link: A blog post titled “Why Adam Smith Burned His Clothes” by Edwin West.

Alas, except for the blog post, all of these scholarly sources are gated. If I am able to find ungated copies of these materials, I will post them here next week.