Editors’ Introduction : This book seeks to provide a comprehensive view of the rise and progress of political economy in eighteenth-century Scotland with a special emphasis upon its internal connections with the Scottish Enlightenment. Apart from numerous works written concerning eighteenth-century Scottish economists or from equally numerous histories of economic thought including accounts

doi:10.4324/9780203986653-4

Chapter

ABSTRACT

Chapter 8 by Keiichi Watanabe re-examines Adam Smith’s view of the economic structure of civilized society as seen in his theory of taxation. Smith developed a critical analysis of the taxation system under English mercantilism and suggested his original proposals for reform. His view of excise as being imposed for reducing land tax but ultimately resulting in a tax on the rent of land, was unique and sensational in the historical context of his days. Smith proposed a reform plan for the fixed-rate land-tax introduced after the Glorious Revolution (1688) and demanded a higher land-tax be paid by the landed classes. Watanabe draws from this Smith’s affirmative view of social and economic hegemony of the land-owning classes and seeks to revise the common view of Smith as a champion of industrial capitalism. By so doing he attempts to grasp the idea of Smith as a major proponent of ‘agrarian capitalism’, which was closely similar to but not necessarily the same as the classical republican version of agrarianism.