Adam Smith turned 300 this year. Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, in 1723, he too lived in a time of great upheaval. The seedlings of the industrial revolution were taking root in the U.K. Scotland had only been part of the U.K. since the Act of Union came into effect in 1707. A stable polity provided the foundation upon which great advancements in learning and industry would take place during the Scottish Enlightenment.
For the first time in the history of the world, humans would experience sustained economic growth. The average person’s standard of living was roughly constant for most of human history until the industrial revolution. It’s an underappreciated fact: The average person’s material conditions did not significantly change from the time of Christ to the 1700s.
That makes it all the more stunning that Smith had the nerve to write a book called The Wealth of Nations in 1776 — what a glorious year. Even living in unimaginable squalor compared with today’s standards, Smith looked at the world and asked why some countries were wealthier than others.
He concluded that the progress of the division of labor, what we would today call “specialization,” was the key to wealth. In poor countries, everyone does everything. People make their own clothes, grow and cook their own food, defend themselves against invaders, and more. In wealthy countries, people have specific jobs and trade for the things they don’t make.
The order that emerges constitutes what Smith called the “system of natural liberty.” Contrary to the prevailing views of his day, it didn’t need to be superintended by government. The mercantilist conventional wisdom said the government needed to direct economic activity. Wealth was measured by how much gold and silver a country could accumulate.
Smith said that was all wrong. Economics wasn’t about storing up precious metals in the king’s treasury. It was about improving the material living standards for citizens. It was about making sure they had the freedom to pursue their own interests and secure prosperity for themselves and their families.
Despite the roughly 30-fold increase in global living standards since the industrial revolution, economic freedom still has detractors. Smith was used to that, too. The Wealth of Nations challenged the policies of governments, many of which would not be changed to Smith’s liking. Smith’s time also saw its fair share of radical ideology. Smith’s friend, Edmund Burke, was one of the most courageous voices speaking out against it.
Today, we see economic freedom under attack from the Left, which is to be expected, but also from some parts of the Right. That’s part of the reason why we commissioned the Adam Smith 300 essay series this year for Capital Matters. We believe it’s important to rediscover the foundations of economic freedom, so we’ve had monthly essays on Smith from a variety of perspectives. (You can support our important work at Capital Matters — and initiatives like the Adam Smith project that promote economic freedom — by making a year-end, tax-deductible contribution to National Review Institute, the nonprofit journalistic think tank that supports the NR mission.)
We got Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith to write about Adam Smith’s theory of community. We got Yuval Levin to write about how Smith’s thought influenced the Founding Fathers. For Smith’s actual birthday on June 16, we got as close to Adam Smith as we could: Craig Smith, the Adam Smith senior lecturer in the Scottish Enlightenment at the University of Glasgow.
Did you know Adam Smith was an English teacher? Caroline Breashears of St. Lawrence University wrote about his background in rhetoric and literature. How does the thought of a man from Presbyterian Scotland interact with Catholic social teaching? Catherine Pakaluk of Catholic University has got you covered.
You can check out all those essays, and more, by clicking here. Keeping Smith’s legacy alive is an important part of our mission at Capital Matters.
As William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in the mission statement from the first issue of National Review in 1955, “The competitive price system is indispensable to liberty and material progress.” As we reaffirmed in our first-ever monthly issue of the magazine this year, “Without economic liberty, people cannot be free and cannot express their God-given creativity and drive.”
In a country with an administrative state as ambitious as ours is and amid growing openness to the ideas of social democracy on left and right, those core commitments need defending now more than ever. That’s why we’re asking for your help.
As we near the end of 2023, and you consider your own end-of-year giving, I hope you will give, and give generously, to National Review Institute. Capital Matters is made possible thanks to NRI and, importantly, the dedicated supporters around the country. You can make a tax-deductible gift to NRI by donating here.
Thank you for your support, and please know we’re holding down the fort for economic freedom every day here at Capital Matters. We hope to play a small part in making sure Adam Smith is still being read in another 300 years.