Adam Smith’s Defence of Empire: A Note

Mark Donoghue

History of Economics Review, 2021, vol. 78, issue 1, 5-16

Abstract: Recent historiography has alleged inconsistencies in Adam Smith’s views on the British Empire. First, Smith opposes the British Empire because it was established for rent-seeking merchants eager to monopolize the colonial trade; second, Smith supported the Empire because it underwrote a global free trade regime that expanded the market for British goods and services, increasing trade, specialization, and the international division of labour; third, the British Empire served a valuable military purpose in the expansion and security of worldwide British interests. This note argues that Smith’s views on the British Empire can be reconciled by focusing on the beginnings of Britain’s imperial project in Asia. In North America, the British Empire expanded under the colonial system, while in India the system of exclusive companies was the driving force. Smith recommended the abolition of the East Indies monopoly. However, the East India Company was unlikely to survive without its monopoly privileges. Therefore, Smith proposed an alternative solution for the Company’s governance of the Indian territories. The Company would retain its joint-stock status while discharging the three duties of the sovereign as a representative of the British state, a proposal which is consistent with the system of natural liberty and justice Smith avowed.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10370196.2020.1808307 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rherxx:v:78:y:2021:i:1:p:5-16

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rher20

DOI: 10.1080/10370196.2020.1808307

Access Statistics for this article

History of Economics Review is currently edited by John Harry Bloch and John Hawkins

More articles in History of Economics Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().