Adam Smith and the moral economy of the classroom system

In 1762, Glasgow was a centre of educational and intellectual innovation. The 11 members of the May Faculty meeting included Joseph Black (1728-99), whose discovery of latent heat enabled James Watt to revolutionize the steam engine; John Anderson (1726-96), whose educational and social ideas helped to shape popular adult education in the nineteenth century; and not least, Adam Smith (1723-90), whose writings did much to establish the science of political economy.