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‘peace, easy taxes, and justice’

In: Adam Smith

Author

Listed:
  • Gavin Kennedy

Abstract

Smith wrote on the role of government for legislators and those who influenced them. Unfazed by a non-existent mass electorate (Adam Smith did not have a vote under the existing franchise), ministers, lords and MPs were sensitive, however, to their image among their peers, and were not comfortable with anything likely to undermine the social respect they expected from their ‘inferiors’. Smith understood this and he chose his words accordingly and his style is fairly clipped and, except in ‘a compleat history of all the chartered companies in Great Britain’ (WN731-58; Corr263-4), it is devoid of rhetoric.1 The inordinately long section on church governance (WN788-814) contrasts starkly with the section he wrote on government spending on public projects to facilitate commerce (WN724-31).

Suggested Citation

  • Gavin Kennedy, 2008. "‘peace, easy taxes, and justice’," Great Thinkers in Economics, in: Adam Smith, chapter 13, pages 227-244, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:gtechp:978-0-230-22754-5_14
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230227545_14
    as

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