Biography of Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Adam Smith

Adam Smith was born on June 5th, 1723, in Kirkcaldy, a trading center in Scotland. Smith's birthplace gave him exposure to a number of trades, including fishing, mining, iron-working, and trade. Smith also witnessed the growing popularity of foreign commodities imported from the colonies, such as tobacco and cotton, giving him further material for thought.

Smith did well at school and won a scholarship to study at Oxford. He had many criticisms of the school. He addresses some of these criticisms in The Wealth of Nations when he discusses how incentives must be created for teachers by their students. Oxford professors were paid not by student fees, but from a large endowment, and Smith perceived a disconnect between the content of their lessons and their teaching style and the needs of their students.

Smith began his intellectual career when he was called to lecture at Edinburgh in English and the philosophy of law. After this engagement, he traveled to the University of Glasgow, where he taught logic, moral philosophy, literature, and public policy. It was this lecturing that provided the basis for much of Smith's later work.

In 1759, Smith was hired as a tutor for the son of a wealthy statesman, and, with his pupil, began extensive travels of Europe. He met with David Hume in Paris, and went on to visit the South of France and Geneva. He used these opportunities to reflect on the interaction of culture, government, commerce, and economics, and to analyze various policy approaches and their effectiveness. Smith returned to London in 1766.

After educating his pupil, Smith retired to Kirkcaldy, the city of his birth, where he began his work on The Wealth of Nations, which he devoted himself to even at the expense of his health. During a long stay in London from 1773 to 1776, Smith enjoyed the company of a host of other great thinkers, including Edmund Burke, Boswell and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, and it met with widespread and immediate success, and was translated into many languages shortly after its publication.

After his publication, Smith was appointed to be the Commissioner of Customs. This position endowed Smith with real political power and placed him in a position to put many of his ideas into action. He also became an important voice on other issues, including trade restrictions on Ireland. It was in 1790, during his time as Commissioner, that Smith passed away after he grew exhausted during a particularly lively discussion with his intellectual circle of friends and acquaintances.