Adam Smith’s analysis of the ‘market economy’ in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) contains many valuable insights, but it is also very much a product of its times. Discuss this statement with reference to the specific intellectual and socio-economic contexts within which Smith

Response Paper

You are to choose one of the following questions and write your response using the ‘required reading’ and other material that is indicated immediately below it. You are welcome to draw on any other sources that you feel may be relevant for that question. But the minimum criterion is to utilise this ‘required reading’, which, if used well, will be more than sufficient.

Question 2

Adam Smith’s analysis of the ‘market economy’ in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) contains many valuable insights, but it is also very much a product of its times.

Discuss this statement with reference to the specific intellectual and socio-economic contexts within which Smith was writing.

Required Reading (compulsory for this question )

Backhouse, R. (2002) The Penguin History of Economics. London: Penguin. – Chapter 6 ‘The Scottish Enlightenment of townload The Scottish Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century, pp. 110-133.
Hunt, E.K. and Lautzenheiser, M. (2002) History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective. London: M.E. Sharpe – Chapter 3 ‘Adam Smith’, pp.40-64.