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Nota bene: I will conclude my comprehensive survey of Adam Smith’s 1784 digression on joint stock companies on Tuesday (18 August), but in the meantime below is a compendium of my recent blog posts on Adam Smith’s critique of joint … Continue reading →

If you are looking for any further evidence that Adam Smith is, deep down, a pragmatist, then check out paragraph 30 of the last part of Smith’s 1784 pamphlet, Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr. … Continue reading →

Thus far this week (see here, here, and here), we have reviewed Adam Smith’s tedious and painstaking reconstruction of the rise and fall of the East India Company. What lessons can we learn from this epic episode in the history … Continue reading →

Alternate title: The Rise and Fall of the English East Indian Company To sum up the first two-thirds of our survey of Adam Smith’s “very long paragraph” (see here and here), the English East India Company had accumulated massive amounts … Continue reading →

Picking up where we last left off (see my previous post), Adam Smith next describes two great external events — the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48) and the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) — that improved the fortunes of the East … Continue reading →

Last week (see here, here, here, and here), we retraced Adam Smith’s survey of three historic overseas trading firms — the Royal African, Hudson’s Bay, and South Sea companies — and saw a pattern began to emerge: Adam Smith is … Continue reading →

Also, on this day (9 August) in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned from office in disgrace and, ten years ago (2016), my wife and I closed on the purchase of our current home in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando, Florida!

Thus far this week (see here and here), we have seen Adam Smith’s survey of two historic overseas trading firms organized as joint-stock companies: the Royal African and Hudson’s Bay companies. Today, we turn to Smith’s survey of the ill-fated … Continue reading →

Nota bene: Today’s post contains another installment of my multi-part review of Adam Smith’s “digression on joint stock companies” in his 1784 pamphlet Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr. Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature … Continue reading →