《What did, after all, East India Company have to do with any of these ideas?》
What if Smith's base economic assumptions were wrong?
Was breaking the Company's Indian monopoly disastrous for China? Did China have to be forced into trucking and bartering?
What if we don't all have a propensity to truck and barter, and many of us have to be violently coerced into contributing to this fetishistic GDP totem you've invented based on false assumptions about my nature?
I do not know for political economy, but it is generally thought that Hume (who was 12 years older) had quite a lot of influence on Smith's philosophical outlook. I have by the way just ordered a book that looks at their relationship. Hope to know more.
Nicholas Phillipson in his book "Adam Smith" says that they shared the same views on the role of commercial activity in developing the sociability that is both a source and a consequence of the "sympathy" Smith writes about in TMS. Hume wrote on monetary policy, but Schumpeter observes that Hume was really a descendent of the pre-classical writers rather than innovative in any deep way. I don't recall much of Smith's theory of money, but it may not have been any deeper (else it might have stuck in my mind).
《What did, after all, East India Company have to do with any of these ideas?》
What if Smith's base economic assumptions were wrong?
Was breaking the Company's Indian monopoly disastrous for China? Did China have to be forced into trucking and bartering?
What if we don't all have a propensity to truck and barter, and many of us have to be violently coerced into contributing to this fetishistic GDP totem you've invented based on false assumptions about my nature?
Excellent review. Do you know if Hume had any influence of Smith's approach to political economy?
I do not know for political economy, but it is generally thought that Hume (who was 12 years older) had quite a lot of influence on Smith's philosophical outlook. I have by the way just ordered a book that looks at their relationship. Hope to know more.
Nicholas Phillipson in his book "Adam Smith" says that they shared the same views on the role of commercial activity in developing the sociability that is both a source and a consequence of the "sympathy" Smith writes about in TMS. Hume wrote on monetary policy, but Schumpeter observes that Hume was really a descendent of the pre-classical writers rather than innovative in any deep way. I don't recall much of Smith's theory of money, but it may not have been any deeper (else it might have stuck in my mind).
Thanks.