ABSTRACT
It has often been remarked that a great author has something fresh and significant to offer each succeeding generation of readers, and in Adam Smith’s case this truism is especially apt. Quite apart from the multitude of ideologists and propagandists who have cited him in support of their polemical campaigns, innumerable scholars have sought to comprehend the meaning of his writings and to assess their significance for Smith’s own and subsequent epochs. In recent decades there has been a considerable debate about the interrelationships between the various component elements in Smith’s works, especially his conception of scientific method, his moral philosophy, his view of the process of historical change and his contributions to economic analysis.2 The present essay is designed to place his treatment of economic policy in this broader intellectual context, by reconsidering his account of the mercantile system in relation to his theory of history and politics and his view of long-run socio-economic development.
