ABSTRACT
THE fame of ADAM SMITH in his own lifetime rested as much on his Theoryo.fMoral Sentiments(I7S9)as on his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes o.f the Wealth of Nations (1776), but the influence of the latter book in after times has been beyond comparison the greater. The author cannot indeed claim to have created economical study in England. His friend Hume, following up Locke and Petty and many pamphleteers, had done good preparatory work; and Hutcheson's lectures at Glasgow, to say nothing of his Moral Philosophy (1747) 1 had probably an influence on Adam Smith's ways of thinking. There had been considerable public interest in economical subjects, towards the middle of the century, whether through Hutcheson and H ume, or through French influences. Foulis and other Scotch publishers had reprinted the tracts and treatises of Gee (I 7 so), Law (I7So), Mun (I7SS), and others, as well as More's Utopia (1743). Montesquieu's Spirit o.f the Laws had been translated for them ( 1 7 so). Original treatises were fewer; but Sir James Steuart, Jacobite and Mercantilist, had written in 1767 an Inquiry z'nto the Principles o.f Political (Economy, being an Essay on the Science o.f Domestz'c Pol£cy in Free Natz'ons, in which he had covered the ground of political economy in the modern sense. Complaint has sometimes been made that Adam Smith borrowed from Steuart without acknowledgment.2
