For most of the two hundred years or so that have passed since the
publication of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith's writings on political
and economic questions have been viewed within a liberal capitalist
perspective of nineteenth- and twentieth- century provenance. This essay
in interpretation seeks to provide a more historical reading of certain
political themes which recur in Smith's writings by bringing
eighteenth-century perspectives to bear on the problem. Contrary to the
view that sees Smith's work as marking the point at which 'politics' was
being eclipsed by 'economics', it claims that Smith has a 'politics'
which goes beyond certain political attitudes connected with the role of
the state in economic affairs. It argues that he employs a consistent
mode of political analysis which cannot be encompassed within the
standard liberal capitalist categories, but can be understood by
reference to the language and qualities of contemporary political
debate, and of the eighteenth-century science of politics cultivated by
Montesquieu and, above all, Hume, particularly as revealed by recent
scholarship. A concluding chapter draws the various strands of the
interpretation together to form a portrait of what Smith might
legitimately be said to have been doing when he wrote on these matters.