Adam Smith

Thomas Malthus

Smith's optimistic view of economic growth is contrasted with Malthus's pessimistic population theory, creating a fundamental ideological conflict.

David Ricardo

Smith and Ricardo are linked as foundational classical economists, with Ricardo building upon and sometimes revising Smith's labor theory of value.

John Stuart Mill

Smith and Mill are linked as major figures in the classical tradition, with Mill often seen as synthesizing and advancing Smith's ideas.

Henry Buckle

Buckle's historical method is used to support or challenge Smith's economic individualism, linking them as thinkers about social progress.

Herbert Spencer

Smith's classical liberalism is contrasted with Spencer's later laissez-faire extremism, representing a divergence in liberal thought.

John Stuart Mill

Smith and Mill are linked as major figures in the classical tradition, with Mill often seen as synthesizing and advancing Smith's ideas.

Thomas Malthus

Smith's optimistic view of economic growth is contrasted with Malthus's pessimistic population theory, creating a fundamental ideological conflict.

David Ricardo

Smith and Ricardo are linked as foundational classical economists, with Ricardo building upon and sometimes revising Smith's labor theory of value.

Henry Buckle

Buckle's historical method is used to support or challenge Smith's economic individualism, linking them as thinkers about social progress.

John Stuart Mill

Smith and Mill are linked as major figures in the classical tradition, with Mill often seen as synthesizing and advancing Smith's ideas.

Preface to the Fourth Edition

Mentioned as part of the school of thought whose truths George seeks to unite with those of Proudhon and Lasalle.

Book I: Wages and Capital

Smith's views on wages and capital are referenced as part of the established economic theory being critiqued.

I: The Current Doctrine of Wages—Its Insufficiency

Mentioned as part of the succession of economists who accepted the wage-fund theory.

II: The Meaning of the Terms

Mentioned for counting personal qualities as capital, an error inconsistent with his own definition.

III: Wages Not Drawn from Capital, but Produced by the Labor

Smith is cited for recognizing that in simple production, wages are the produce of labor, but criticized for abandoning this insight in favor of the view that wages are drawn from capital.

I: The Malthusian Theory, Its Genesis and Support

Held a rudimentary form of the Malthusian theory, which influenced his views on wages.

III: Inferences from Analogy

Smith is referenced for his observation that poor women often have many children, supporting the narrator's point about differential birth rates.

Book III: The Laws of Distribution

Smith's foundational work on political economy is discussed.

Epigraph

Quoted on the evolution of inventions and philosophical systems from complexity to simplicity.

I: The Inquiry Narrowed to the Laws of Distribution—The Necessary Relation of These Laws

Referenced as the originator of the confusion in economic terminology, followed uncritically by later economists.

VI: Wages and the Law of Wages

Cited for his observation that high wages in new colonies result from open land and no rent, and for his enumeration of circumstances causing wage variations between employments.

Book IV: Effect of Material Progress Upon the Distribution of Wealth

Referenced for his views on the division of labor and economic growth.

The Proposition Tried by the Canons of Taxation

Referenced for his view that incomes are 'enjoyed under the protection of the state,' which is used to argue for equal taxation of property.

As to Equality

Cited for his canon that subjects should contribute in proportion to their abilities and revenue, and for the idea that incomes are enjoyed under the protection of the state.

Endnotes

His definition of capital is noted as prior to Malthus, contrasted with later economists.