As America marks 250 years of independence, Adam Smith is again being pressed into service as a founding myth. A deeper reading of The Wealth of Nations reveals a far richer thinker than today’s easy invocations of markets and liberty suggest.
To the New England mind, roads, schools, clothes, and a clean face were connected as part of the law of order or divine system. Bad roads meant bad morals. The moral of this Virginia road was clear, and the boy fully learned it. Slavery was wicked, and slavery was the cause of this road’s badness which amounted to social crime—and yet, at the end of the road and product of the crime stood Mount Vernon and George Washington.
- Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams
Henry Adams knew how easily founding myths inspire doublethink. As America gears up to celebrate 250 years of American independence this 4th of July, the point is worth recalling again. The way a lot of people are telling it, we are all really celebrating not just the Declaration of Independence, but Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, which was also published 250 years ago. We will leave for another time all deep questions of historical fact or remarks about the irony of suddenly discovering that Smith, not Hamilton, offers the truest reflection of America’s political economy.
From its founding, INET has tried to take economic history very seriously. We, too, consider Adam Smith a towering figure in the history of thought and believe everybody should read at least some of his work. But we also see that the customary appropriations of his legacy are often very shallow.
So rather than simply scoff at the idea that the Wealth of Nations is really a subtext of the Declaration of Independence, we thought it would be better to seize the occasion to bring a brilliantly learned and sophisticated treatment of Smith and his work before a broad audience.
Alessandro Roncaglia is an economist of great distinction, who has published on many subjects. He is recognized worldwide for his glittering achievements as a historian of economic thought. We knew that he was finishing a comprehensive treatment of the history of economic ideas, so we asked if we could present his chapter on Adam Smith as an INET Working Paper.[1] We are delighted when he and Cambridge University press agreed.
[1] INET has assisted in the production of the new work with a small grant; and his earlier study of Power and Inequality appeared in INET’s book series published by Cambridge University Press.
