Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Adam Smith – a Primer

From The Institute of Economic Affairs:
By means of glasses, hotbeds, and hotwalls, very good grapes can be raised in Scotland, and very good wine too can be made of them at about thirty times the expense for which at least equally good can be brought from foreign countries.
Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines, merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland?
The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, ch. II, p. 458, para. 15
... and subsidies

The bounty to the white-herring fishery is a tonnage bounty; and is proportioned to the burden of the ship, not to her diligence or success in the fishery; and it has, I am afraid, been too common for vessels to fit out for the sole purpose of catching, not the fish, but the bounty.
The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, ch. V, p. 520, para. 32

I just read it, you should too. 69 page PDF
HT: EU Referendum

And from Forbes:

Adam Smith: Web Junkie

Adam Smith's Folly