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“The third and last duty of the sovereign or commonwealth is that of erecting and maintaining those public institutions and those public works, which, though they may be in the highest degree advantageous to a great society, are, however, of … Continue reading →

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was published on this day (9 March) in 1776. I will resume my survey of Smith’s magnum opus in my next post; in the meantime, to mark this … Continue reading →

To mark the 250th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations (9 March 1776) and Adam Smith’s timeless defense of natural liberty, I am reposting Shervin Hajipour’s haunting anthem “Baraye”, which he composed in response to his government’s … Continue reading →

Alternative title: Adam Smith, an Enlightened legal realist Among other things, Plato’s Republic contains a dialogue between Socrates and Thrasymachus about the nature of justice. Most educated people already know who Socrates was, but who was Thrasymachus? By all accounts, … Continue reading →

Nota Bene: Adam Smith turns his attention to the role of government, law, and public finance in the fifth and final section of The Wealth of Nations (available here). In brief, Book V contains three chapters and is structured as … Continue reading →

Adam Smith sums up what is wrong with mercantilism and protectionism in two sentences at the very end of Book IV of The Wealth of Nations: “It is thus that every system which endeavours, either by extraordinary encouragements [i.e. subsidies … Continue reading →

Adam Smith concludes Book IV of his magnum opus with a critical survey of one of the leading schools of political economy of his day (the Age of Enlightenment), that of the French économistes led by the incomparable royal doctor … Continue reading →

“Though the encouragement of exportation and the discouragement of importation are the two great engines by which the mercantile system proposes to enrich every country, yet with regard to some particular commodities it seems to follow an opposite plan: to … Continue reading →

“Such exclusive companies [like the English East India Co.] … are nuisances in every respect; always more or less inconvenient to the countries in which they are established, and destructive to those which have the misfortune to fall under their … Continue reading →

I will resume my survey of Book IV of The Wealth of Nations in my next post; in the meantime, here is a remix of “1st of tha month”: