THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADAM SMITH

The Wealth of Nations was a remarkable intellectual achievement. It provided not a piecemeal account, but a comprehensive and integrated view of the economic process. Moreover, Smith's impressive performance at the theoretical level was matched by a notable absence of special-interest pleading of the type that had dominated so much earlier economic writing.

Perhaps the clearest testimony to Smith's impact and influence can be found in the theoretical literature produced over the three quarters of a century following the publication of The Wealth of Nations. Subsequent classical writers found much to criticize in Smith's work. But they paid him the highest compliment a theorist can receive: both the questions they asked and their mode of procedure in the search for answers were very largely moulded by his writing. Moreover, mid-twentieth century students of economic growth have profited from his exploration into these grand themes. At the popular level Smith's influence was also considerable. His picture of the economic universe made its complexity intelligible to men of affairs and his central message could easily be appropriated by participants in public debates.

Little of the content of The Wealth of Nations can be regarded as original to Smith himself. Most of the book's arguments had in one form or another been in circulation for some time. But this fact in no way diminishes Smith's achievement. He was the first to draw the threads together, to fit them into a coherent system, and to communicate the findings to a wider audience. Measured against these standards The Wealth of Nations is indeed a formidable document.

Smith's talents as a synthesizer, however, were the source of some analytical imperfections in his writing. At a number of points he offered explanations that were ambiguous or inconsistent. Much of the energy of the next generation of contributors to the classical tradition was devoted to the task of tidying and tightening the basic framework he had developed. Prominent among the issues to which his successors addressed themselves

were such questions as the following: how and in what circumstances might the progress of improvement be checked? did it necessarily follow that economic expansion brought gains to all orders of society? was sustained economic progress necessarily a paramount social goal? Malthus, Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill were to address themselves to these topics and to offer answers somewhat different from those Smith had supplied.