Introduction
Adam Smith’s free market ‘Wealth of Nations’ had an immediate and highly beneficial impact on British economic policy, one whose ripples spread across the world. Yet as biographer Richard Haldane explains, so successful was Smith in changing the conversation that most people have now forgotten all about him.
TO the practical politician and social reformer, Adam Smith ought to be a hero, no less than he is to the economist. To both he appears in the light of one of the greatest vanquishers of error on record, the literary Napoleon of his generation. No man in modern times has said more with so much effect within the compass of one book.
Yet it is not probable that any competent person could now be found to repeat without hesitation the assertion, made more than once by Buckle in his “History of Civilization” that “The Wealth of Nations” is the most important book ever written.* As we become removed by an ever-increasing distance from the prejudices and opinions which Adam Smith once for all shattered,* their magnitude and importance appear to grow smaller. Like every great thinker he is apt to lose something of the admiration he merits, because of the extent to which his conceptions have entered into and become part of our intellectual lives.
Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862), an extremely good chess player who inherited enough money to allow him to devote himself to historical research. His magnum opus, ‘History of Civilization’, was published in 1857.
The prejudices of Smith’s day were, in essence, that for Britain to be strong other countries must be weakened by lop-sided trade deals enforced by a powerful military, deals designed to protect British corporations by burdening overseas competitors with regulation, tariffs and taxes. Members of her global customs union (the Empire) were comparatively favoured; but as policy was still designed to amass gold in her Treasury and not theirs, the American colonies rebelled in 1775.
Précis
Richard Haldane argued that Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ had such an immediate and lasting impact that the problems and errors he wrote about were soon consigned to the past. Yet the fact that his ideas are now so widely accepted, said Haldane, has led later generations to forget how revolutionary they were, and consequently to undervalue Smith himself. (59 / 60 words)
Richard Haldane argued that Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’ had such an immediate and lasting impact that the problems and errors he wrote about were soon consigned to the past. Yet the fact that his ideas are now so widely accepted, said Haldane, has led later generations to forget how revolutionary they were, and consequently to undervalue Smith himself.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: despite, if, just, not, or, unless, until, whereas.
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Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Effect. Practical. Within.
2 Find. Life. Man.
3 Assertion. Conception. He.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Wealth. 2. Most. 3. Repeat. 4. Make. 5. Increase. 6. Nation. 7. History. 8. Part. 9. Opinion.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
rnts (5+1)
orients. rants. rents. reunites. runts.
urinates.
