Adam Smith
Adam Smith, a brilliant eighteenth-century Scottish political economist, had the
advantage of judging the significance ol colonies by a rigorous examination
based on the colonial experience of 300 years. His overview has a built-in bias:
he strongly disapproved of excessive regulation of colonial trade by parent
countries. But his analysis is rich with insight and remarkably dispassionate in
its argument. Adam Smith recognized that the discovery of the New World not only
brought wealth and prosperity to the Old World, but that it also marked a divide
in the history of mankind. The passage that follows is the work of this economic
theorist who discusses problems in a language readily understandable by everyone.
Adam Smith had retired from a professorship at Glasgow University and Was living
in France in 1764-5 when he began his great work, The Wealth of Nations. The
book was being written all during the years of strife between Britain and her
colonies, but it was not......
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Approximate Word Count: 4738
Approximate Pages: 19 (260 words per double-spaced page) |