Abstract
As the birthplace of Adam Smith and the land where systematic economic analysis made its first appearance, Scotland holds the pride of place in the annals of economic thought. In Smith’s time, a system was regarded as a wide range of phenomena, all causally related by some simple concept or common principle that could provide unity and harmony amidst an apparent chaos of diversity. Political economy had already received recognition in France and England as a subject for investigation, but a certain comprehensive quality was imparted by academic writers in Scotland such as David Hume and Adam Smith.1 The Scottish writers share with the physiocrats the distinction of pursuing their investigation with a purpose other than that of promoting the welfare of the sovereign or of their own enterprise. And perhaps more important, the writings of the Scottish school had their origin in the universities, whereas early writings on political economy in France and England were generally the work of ad hoc pamphleteers. Though we frequently refer to the Scottish political economists as a “school,” they did not adhere to any one leader or set of doctrines. Unlike the French physiocrats, they had a mutual interdependence that was quite informal and unintentional.
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Thomson, H.F. (1987). The Scottish Enlightenment and Political Economy. In: Todd Lowry, S. (eds) Pre-Classical Economic Thought. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3255-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3255-5_14
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