ECONOMIC CLASSICS Volumes now ready: ADAM SMITH: Select Chapters and Passages RICARDO: First Six Chapters MALTHUS: Parallel Chapters from the 1st and 2nd Editions Forthcoming volumes: MUN CHILD TURGOT QUESNAI ROSCHER &c., &c. ADAM SMITH was born at Kirkcaldy in Fifeshire, Scotland, on June 5, 1723. In 1737 he went to the University of Glasgow, and thence, in 1740, to Balliol College, Oxford, with an exhibition on the Snell foundation. At Oxford he remained uninterruptedly for over six years. Returning to Kirkcaldy in 1746, he lived for two years with his widowed mother, continuing his studies. In 1748 he delivered a course of lectures on rhetoric and belles lettres during the winter at Edinburgh, under the patronage of Lord Kames; and it was then that he formed his friendship with David Hume. In 1751 he became Professor of Logic in the University of Glasgow, and in 1752 Professor of Moral Philosophy. The publication of his Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759 established his literary reputation. In 1763 he resigned his professorship to take charge of the young Duke of Buccleugh during his continental travels: and he resided abroad, chiefly in Paris and Toulouse, for nearly three years. During this time he made the acquaintance of Quesnai and Turgot and others of the French "Économistes" or (6 Physiocrates." In 1766 he went home again to Kirkcaldy, and remained in retirement there for ten years, working at his Wealth of Nations, which appeared in 1776. Made famous by this book, he spent the next two years in the literary society of London, and joined the Club over |