Two literary artifacts, both dating from the last two months of Adam Smith’s Grand Tour (September-October, 1766), merit a closer look. One is a private letter penned by Madame Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni sometime during the month of October, 1766. The other is a letter dated 18 September 1766, most likely authored by a Scottish transplant in France, Seignelay Colbert de Castle-Hill. Both pieces of primary evidence pose an open problem of an amorous nature. These letters report that Adam Smith was not lacking in female admirers during his sojourn overseas, but who were these ladies, and what was the nature of these foreign contacts? Companionate? Platonic? Sexual? Or something else? Below is an excerpt from Chapter 10 (“Das Liebesproblem”) of my forthcoming survey of open Adam Smith problems with Salim Rashid (footnotes are below the fold):

“Could the ‘Madame Nicol’ mentioned as a love interest in Abbé Colbert’s 18 September 1766 letter to Adam Smith have been an actress? On this possibility, it is worth mentioning that by all accounts Madame Riccoboni—an accomplished actress and novelist—and Adam Smith—an admirer of the stage—were avid theater and opera fans during Smith’s stay in the City of Light.^[1] Indeed, ‘it is very likely Smith took recommendations from Riccoboni as to which theatrical performances to attend’,^[2] and so it is not far-fetched to imagine to them attending a play or opera or concert together.

“What many Smith scholars, however, have failed to mention is that these theatrical venues were the center of an elite Parisian sexual marketplace, the famed dames entretenues or kept women of French high society.^[3] Famous for their talent, glamour, and beauty, these femmes galantes were the most highly-sought after women of pleasure in all Europe, models and actresses who ‘earned their living by engaging in long-term sexual and often companionate relationships with men from the financial, political, and social elites, known as le monde (high society).’^[4]

“Although not all theater women were kept mistresses or femmes galantes, this sultry scene overlapped directly with the world of the theater: ‘It was widely understood that any woman in the Opéra, and to a lesser degree the other theater companies, was a dame entretenue, or at least wanted to be.’^[5] The world of theater was the center of this high-end sex market because ‘being on the stage greatly increased … “sexual capital”, the desirability of a mistress and hence the prices she could command for her services’,^[6] and the theater district of the French capital was teeming with high-end brothels and places of ill-repute.^[7] Although we have no other evidence to indicate whether Smith himself partook in a theatrical liaison, so to speak, who knows?”

^[1] By way of example, John Rae (1895, ch. 14) and Ian Simpson Ross (2010, ch. 13), scholars who have produced two of the most comprehensive biographies of Smith, both commented on Smith’s fondness for the opera during his second sojourn in Paris.

^[2] Dawson 2018, p. 8.

^[3] Cf. Kushner 2013, pp. 4-5: “About a fifth of the kept women under police surveillance at midcentury worked in the theater. Most were in the Opéra or its school, as dancers and singers.”

^[4] Ibid., p. 3.

^[5] Ibid., p. 31.

^[6] Ibid., p. 5.

^[7] In the words of Nina Kushner (2013, p. 110), “Many brothels were in the center of town, on the rue St. Honoré or nearby, making them convenient for men leaving the Opéra.”