ABSTRACT
Adam Smith’s authentic attitude to how Britain should resolve America’s War of Independence is not only opaque but apparently full of inconsistencies. In this paper I explore the exceptionalism of his attitude to America in the context of his social science commitments and aims as an intellectual. Specifically, although he deplored Britain’s retention of all its colonies, he proposed a number of strategies for solving the American problem that accommodated that retention. I pay particular attention to one of his solutions: the establishment of an imperial parliament, a supra-national assembly that gave the Americans representation in parliament and made them equal economic and political partners with England.
Some scholars have suggested that this is his favoured resolution above all others, something I challenge in this paper. Understanding where Smith really stood with regard to America and working through his various strategies for peace is a useful way of exploring his more general approach to political problems and allows us to appreciate that he was more of a pragmatic political realist than is commonly allowed.
