Adam Smith
The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is any where directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.
- 1723 - Birth
- While his exact date of birth isn’t known, Adam Smith’s baptism was recorded on June 5, 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. His father, Adam Smith Sr, died just two months after his birth.
- 1729-1736 - Early Education
- He began his education with a private tutor at home before attending the Burgh School of Kirkcaldy, where he spent eight years.
- 1737-1740 - University Years
- Smith entered the University of Glasgow at the age of 14. He studied Latin, Greek, Logic, Moral Philosophy (taught by Francis Hutcheson), Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy.
- 1740-1746 at Oxford University
- Adam Smith considered the teaching at Glasgow to be far superior to that at Oxford, which he found intellectually stifling. Nonetheless, going ot Oxford exposed Smith to the English economy which wealthier than the Scottish economy at the time and when Smith first travel to England he noted that he really quite struck by just how much better off and wealthier English agriculture was.
- 1748 - Public Lectures
-
Smith ends up working as a freelance lecturer at the
University of Edinburgh and he worked under a kind of
fee system where the greater the number of students he attracted to
his class the more he was paid. Smith overall was a popular lecturer
and he later endorsed the fee system in his Wealth of Nations.
- He taught
-
- Philosophy
- Civil Law and jurisprudence
- Astronomy
- 1751-1763 - Professorship at Glasgow University
- Smith was appointed the Professor of Logic at Glasgow University before changing to the position of Chair of Moral Philosophy.
- 1759 - The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- Adam Smith published his first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which closely examined the moral thinking of his time.
- 1764 - French Enlightenment Influences
- Smith accepted a tutoring post to the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch which involved a two-year tour of Europe. He met key figures of the French Enlightenment.
- 1767 - Wrote Wealth of Nations
- After returning home to Kirkcaldy, he completed work on The Wealth of Nations. He investigated the roles of productivity, division of labor, and free markets.
- 1776 - Published Wealth of Nations
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was published in five volumes. It was influential in its time, and became a fundamental work in classical economics.
- 1778-1783 - Edinburgh
- Smith relocated to Edinburgh where he resided in Panmure House. He became one of the founding members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
- 1787 - Lord Rector
- Smith was awarded his final academic position as Lord Rector of Glasgow University.
- 1790 - Death
- Adam Smith died at his home in Edinburgh.
A Brief Timeline
With The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith installed himself as the leading expositor of economic thought. Currents of Adam Smith run through the works published by David Ricardo and Karl Marx in the nineteenth century, and by John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman in the twentieth.