Ross - Life of Adam Smith

Adam Smith, 1787. Medallion in the antique manner by James Tassie (Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh).

IAN SIMPSON ROSS

Second Edition

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Ian Simpson Ross 2010

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In memory of
Carolyn and Ernest Mossner

My first acknowledgement is to my teacher at the University of Texas, Ernest Campbell Mossner, who asked me in 1964 to help with the preparation of an edition of the correspondence of Adam Smith commissioned by the Adam Smith Committee of the University of Glasgow. Ill health including eye problems forced him to give up this project in the early 1970s, and at his suggestion the Glasgow Committee asked me to complete the correspondence edition and write a biography of Smith. Professor Mossner took a lively interest in this work until his death in 1986, and helped me immensely by passing on his Smith notes and references. His wife Carolyn was also most supportive and encouraging about the Smith project, and I have dedicated my book to these never to be forgotten friends.

In writing this book I have called upon an enormous amount of help from colleagues, among whom I number many former students who worked with me to understand Smiths personality and thought, and friends from many walks of life. I wish to record with much affection and gratitude the readiness of the late Charles Finlayson of Edinburgh University Library, and the late Ian Rae of the National Library of Scotland, in answering queries and fulfilling requests for material. I have been similarly advantaged by their successors in their respective institutions, and by their counterparts in Aberdeen University Library; American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia; Andersonian Library, Strathclyde University; Archives Dpartementales de lHrault, Montpellier; Archives Dpartementales, Toulouse; Balliol College Library and the Bodleian, Oxford; Bibliothque Nationale and Muse Carnavalet, Paris; Bibliothque de lUniversit de Genve; Boswell Office and Yale University Library; British Library; Dr Williamss Library, London; Edinburgh University Library; Glasgow University Library; House of Lords Record Office, Westminster; Huntington Library, Pasadena; Kent County Archives; Kirkcaldy District Council Administrative Office and Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery; Public Record Office (PRO), Kew; Scottish Record Office (SRO), Edinburgh; Statni Oblastni Archiv, Klatovy, Czech Republic; and the University of British Columbia Library. I wish to thank warmly the librarians and keepers in these institutions for permission to consult and quote from material in their control. Quotations from SRO holdings appear with the approval of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. Also, I wish to express my grateful appreciation to Col. A. E. Cameron, Aldourie Castle, Inverness, and Mr Keith Adam, Blair Adam, Kinross, for their willingness to let me quote from MSS they own.

Among many acts of kindness I wish to record the following. Beryl Skinner and Beth Buchanan gave invaluable help in producing texts and print-outs of drafts of chapters. May Brown of Burntisland sought out facts for me about the Kirkcaldy of Smiths time, and Customs officers in the lang toun told me tales of Fife smugglers. Andrew Skinner walked with me through old Glasgow, from the cathedral to the Trongate and beyond, to view sites connected with Smiths student and professorial years. For almost thirty years he has provided a steady stream of advice about Smiths ideas generally, and his contributions in particular to the history of economic thought. Vincent Quinn helped me with Balliol College archives. Nicole Valle was my guide in Paris exploring the haunts of the philosophes, where Smith encountered Quesnay and Turgot. Bernard Gagnebin advised me about sources dealing with Smiths contacts in Geneva. Peter Thal and Norbert Waszek provided key information about Smiths early impact on German thinkers.

In 1993, on a research visit to Germany, Hermann Real and Ulrich Horstmann invited me to present accounts of Smiths rhetoric and critical theory to their students at the Universities of Mnster and Giessen. Hans G. Monissen and Rdiger Ahrens invited me to lecture about Smiths ideas concerning language and economics at the University of Wrzburg. Also, they organized a seminar on Adam Smith at Bildungszentrum Kloster Banz, at which I discussed my biographical approach to Smith with economics and English students and professors. This seminar was supported by a grant from the Hanns Martin Schleyer-Stiftung.

Over the years, Hiroshi Mizuta has responded promptly to many queries about Smiths Library, and he introduced me to courteous and obliging colleagues knowledgeable about Smith materials and scholarship in Japan: Yoshiaki Sudo, Toshihiro Tanaka, Hitoshi Hashimoto, and Hisashi Shinohara. During visits to Japan in 1985 and 1990, I had stimulating opportunities to discuss Smiths thought with Japanese faculty and students, also to examine Smith editions and documents much valued in their country.

John Dwyer awakened me to the social history connected with Smiths writings, and Michael Barfoot passed on his insights into Smiths medical history. Richard Sher generously made known to me important information about the Edinburgh literati, and Roger Emerson was never stumped when I called for some help about the Scottish Enlightenment.

I acknowledge gratefully that so much that is factually new in this book is due to the indefatigable researches of David Raynor on Hume and his circle. He has upheld, I believe, the highest ideals of scholarship in communicating his results to me and offering a commentary on them. I am equally indebted to D. D. Raphael for his abiding interest in the writing of this biography. During the lengthy period of its composition, he has commented sympathetically and with judicious criticism on all problems and attempts at solutions that I have submitted to him.