Smith and Economic Liberalism

Daniel Diatkine ()
Additional contact information
Daniel Diatkine: University of Paris-Saclay, Univ Evry

Chapter Chapter 1 in Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations, 2021, pp 3-14 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter discusses the popular idea according to which Smith is the father of economic liberalism. First, this chapter explores the ambiguities of Laissez-faire. Its first occurrence affirms the idea that exporters must act freely to import precious metals, the only strategic commodities lacking in the country. Secondly, it retraces succinctly the history of the word Liberal and of the expression Economic Liberalism. The word liberal refers to the adversaries of the French Restauration (1815–1830) and the Economic Liberalism is a word used by the opponents to the first socialists, after the 1848 Revolution.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:pal:pshchp:978-3-030-81600-1_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783030816001

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-81600-1_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().