Author Note

I have used throughout this book the Glasgow Bicentennial Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, referring to it as the ‘Glasgow Edition’. It can now be regarded as the definitive collection ofSmith’s work and was published as a series of volumes from 1976 onwards by the Clarendon Press, Oxford.

In quoting Smith’s written and reported works, I have used both abbreviated and full versions of titles and these are listed below, including names of the editors responsible for the volume in the Glasgow Edition.

Corr Correspondence of Adam Smith (E.C. Mossner and L.S. Ross)

EPS Essays on Philosophical Subjects (W.P.D. Wightman). These references are in some cases followed by the relevant essay, e.g. (EPS: Astronomy)

LJ Lectures on Jurisprudence (R.L. Meek, D.D. Raphael, P.G. Stein). These lectures or student reports were dated 1762­63 and 1766 respectively and have only recently been evaluated and added to the literature. Where Lectures appears alone it refers to both sets of lectures; the date is given in respective cases, e.g. (LJ: 1762-63, p. 104)

LRBL Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (J.C. Bryce)

TMS The Theory of Moral Sentiments (A.L. Macfie and D.D. Raphael)

WN An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 2 vols. (R.H. Campbell, A.S. Skinner, W.B. Todd)

I have also made use of an associated volume in the same series, also published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, Essays on Adam Smith (A.S. Skinner, T. Wilson).

In quoting Smith’s words I have used the original spelling but have ‘modernised’ spelling in those cases where I feel it necessary and to help clarify meanings.