Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:00:54.726Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adam Smith's Advisory Style as Illustrated by his Trade Policy Prescriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

A. M. Endres
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The purpose of this paper is to recover Adam Smith's conception of the appropriate rules of argumentation for the political economist in public policy discussion. Our interest will be in Smith's attempt to model the advisory style which he thought appropriate for an economist writing on public policy issues, advising the legislature and debating constitutional problems. Inferences will be drawn from the scope and tone of Smith's work on some selected issues of economic policy reform discussed in The Wealth of Nations (hereafter WN). Extensive reference will be made to Smith's admission of the vital role of rhetoric in human affairs in his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, and to Smith's view of the legislator's perspective on policy as enunciated in the Theory of Moral Sentiments.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , Spring 1995 , pp. 86 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Brown, V. 1994. Adam Smith's Discourse, Routledge Publishers, London.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. 1979. “The Justice of Natural Liberty,” in O'Driscoll, G. P., ed., Adam Smith and Modern Political Economy, 117–31, Iowa State University Press, Iowa.Google Scholar
Popper, K. 1991. Constitutional Economics, Institute of Economic Affairs and Blackwell, London.Google Scholar
Endres, A. M. 1991. “Adam Smith's Rhetoric of Economics,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 38, 76–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Endres, A. M. 1992. “Adam Smith's Treatment of Historical Evidence as Illustrated From the Theory of Investment Priorities,” Journal of European Economic History, 21, 217–49.Google Scholar
Haakonssen, K. 1981. The Science of a Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Haakonssen, K. 1988. “The Jurisprudence and Politics in Adam Smith,” in Haakonssen, , ed., Traditions of Liberalism, Centre for Independent Studies, Sydney, 106–17.Google Scholar
Hont, I. and Ignatieff, M.. 1983. “Needs and Justice in the Wealth of Nations, in Hont, I. and Ignatieff, M., eds., Wealth and Virtue, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 8–44.Google Scholar
Howell, W. S. 1975. “Adam Smith's Lectures on Rhetoric,” in Skinner, A. S. and Wilson, T., eds., Essays on Adam Smith, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 11–43.Google Scholar
Hume, D. 1742. “Of Eloquence,” in Miller, E. F., ed., David Hume: Essays Moral, Political and Literary, Essay 13; revised ed., Liberty Press, Indianapolis, 1985.Google Scholar
Hume, D. 1757. “Of the Standard of Taste,” in Miller, E. F., ed., David Hume: Essays Moral, Political and Literary, Essay 23; revised ed., Liberty Press, Indianapolis, 1985.Google Scholar
Hume, D. 1955. Writings on Economics, edited by Rotwein, W., Nelson, London.Google Scholar
KlamerA., D. McCloskey A., D. McCloskey, and Solow, R., eds. 1988. The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McCloskey, D. 1990. If You're So Smart: The Narrative of Economic Expertise, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Rashid, S. 1980. “The Policy of Laissez-Faire During Scarcities,” Economic Journal, 90, 493–503.Google Scholar
Rashid, S. 1982. “Adam Smith's Rise to Fame,” Eighteenth Century, 23, 64–85.Google Scholar
Robbins, L. 1981. “Economics and Political Economy,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 71, 1–10.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J. 1954. History of Economic Analysis, Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Skinner, A. S. 1990. “The Shaping of Political Economy in the Enlightenment,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 37, 145–65.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1963. Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Lothian, W., ed., Nelson, London.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1976a. An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Campbell, R. H. and Skinner, A., eds., Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1976b. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, edited by Raphael, D. and Macfie, A., Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1978. Lectures on Jurisprudence, edited by Meek, R., Raphael, D. and Stein, P. G., Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1983. Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, edited by Bryce, J. C., Oxford University Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stigler, G. J. 1965. “Textual Exegesis as a Scientific Problem,” Economica 32, 447–50.Google Scholar
Stigler, G. J. 1982. The Economist as Preacher and Other Essays, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Tullock, G. 1988. “Why Did The Industrial Revolution Occur in England?,” in Rowley, C. K., Tollison, R. D. and Tullock, G., eds., The Political Economy of Rent-Seeking, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 409–19.Google Scholar
Werhane, P. 1991. Adam Smith and his Legacy for Modern Capitalism, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
West, E. G. 1976. “Adam Smith's Economics of Politics,” History of Political Economy, 8, 515–39.Google Scholar
West, E. G. 1990. Adam Smith and Modern Economics, Edward Elgar, London.Google Scholar
Willis, K. 1979. “The Role in Parliament of the Economic Ideas of Adam Smith, 1776–1800,” History of Political Economy, 11, 505–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winch, D. 1978. Adam Smith's Politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Winch, D. 1983a. “Science and the Legislator: Adam Smith and After,” Economic Journal, 93, 501–20.Google Scholar
Winch, D. 1983b. “Adam Smith's Enduring Particular Result,” in Hont, I. and Ignatieff, M., eds., Wealth and Virtue, 253–69, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winch, D. 1983c. “The System of the North: Dugald Stewart and his Pupils,” in Collini, S., Winch, D. and Burrow, J., eds., That Noble Science of Politics, 27–61, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Winch, D. 1988. “Commentary,” in Thweatt, W. O., ed., Classical Political Economy, 45–52, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston.Google Scholar