who was adam smith
Adam Smith was an 18th‑century Scottish economist and philosopher, widely regarded as the “father of economics” and a key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Quick Scoop: Who was Adam Smith?
- Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, and baptized on 5 June 1723; he died in Edinburgh on 17 July 1790.
- Worked as a moral philosopher, lecturer, and later a government customs commissioner in Scotland.
- Famous for two major books:
- The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), about ethics, sympathy, and how we judge right and wrong.
* _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_ (1776), often shortened to _The Wealth of Nations_ , considered the first full system of political economy.
- Often called the “father of capitalism” for his defense of markets and limited government intervention.
- Introduced influential ideas like:
- Division of labour (specialization makes workers more productive).
* The “invisible hand” (people pursuing their own interest can unintentionally promote the good of society under the right conditions).
* Critiques of mercantilism and trade restrictions in favor of freer trade.
Mini timeline
- Early life and study
- Grew up in a small Scottish town near Edinburgh, studied at local schools, then at the University of Glasgow as a teenager.
* Later studied at Oxford, where he deepened his interest in philosophy and classics.
- Academic career
- Became a professor of logic, then of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow in his late twenties.
* His lectures there fed directly into _The Theory of Moral Sentiments_.
- Traveling tutor and writer
- Left Glasgow in the 1760s to travel in Europe as a private tutor to a young nobleman, which gave him first‑hand exposure to different economies and governments.
* Spent years developing _The Wealth of Nations_ , published in 1776, the same year as the American Declaration of Independence.
- Later years and death
- Returned to Scotland, took a government job as a commissioner of customs, and continued revising his books.
* Died in 1790 after a relatively modest life, having quietly given much of his money to charity.
Why people still talk about him today
- Modern economics textbooks and debates about markets, globalization, and inequality still start from or react to Adam Smith’s ideas.
- Supporters see him as a champion of free markets and limited government; critics argue his work has been oversimplified and that he was more cautious and morally focused than the stereotype of “pure capitalism” suggests.
- His blend of ethics and economics—how self‑interest, sympathy, and social rules all interact—remains central to conversations about how economies should be organized.
Simple example of his core idea
Imagine a pin factory: one person doing every step alone makes very few pins per day, but ten people, each specializing in one step, can produce thousands.
Smith used this kind of everyday example to show how specialization and cooperation in markets can massively increase wealth, even without any single person planning the whole system.
Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.
