The Science of Wealth: Adam Smith and the framing of political economy (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics)

417 Pages·2008·1.36 MB·English

by  Tony Aspromourgos

The Science of Wealth
This study clarifies the character of ‘political economy’ as a distinct and separ-
able intellectual discipline in the generic sense, in the texts of Adam Smith. It
focuses upon the scope and fundamental conceptualizations of the new science.
Smith’s conceptualization of economic analysis is shown to constitute a unified
intellectual piece for understanding economic society and its dynamics. Smith’s
fundamental economic language is exhaustively examined, in all his texts, with
a view to clarifying the meaning of the basic concepts of his system. As well,
the ‘prehistories’ of those concepts, in literature prior to Smith, back to the earli-
est times, are quite comprehensively treated, thereby placing his political
economy in its larger historical context and conveying a rich sense of the history
of these ideas over the whole course of our civilization.
A quite complete account of Smith’s economics as a whole is also entailed by
this undertaking: his key substantive economic doctrines are thoroughly con-
sidered as well, and all the elements of his economic theory receive attention. To
that extent, notwithstanding the focus on concepts, an interpretation of the sub-
stance of Smith’s political economy is also provided. This focus is partly motiv-
ated by the view that Smith’s intellectual triumph in the history of social science
is not so much about the success of specific doctrines. His more considerable
theoretical success is at a deeper level: gaining a wide and long-lasting acquies-
cence in the conceptual universe framed by the fundamental structures of his
system, for a newly emerging discipline. Those who subsequently contested
Smithian doctrine did so within Smith’s framework; they did so ‘on his terms’.
While the book’s primary purpose is to reconstruct the character of Smith’s
political economy as a distinct intellectual enterprise, it also addresses its rele-
vance to modern economics, and to policy and practice in contemporary liberal
society.
This book will be of interest to students and researchers engaged with the
history of economic and social thought, as well as philosophy and politics.
Tony Aspromourgos is Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney
and is the author of On the Origins of Classical Economics: Distribution and
Value from William Petty to Adam Smith, also published by Routledge.
Routledge studies in the history of economics
1 Economics as Literature 8 The History of Game Theory,
Willie Henderson Vol 1
From the beginnings to 1945
2 Socialism and Marginalism in Robert W. Dimand and
Economics 1870–1930 Mary Ann Dimand
Edited by Ian Steedman
9 The Economics of W. S. Jevons
3 Hayek’s Political Economy Sandra Peart
The socio-economics of order
Steve Fleetwood 10 Gandhi’s Economic Thought
Ajit K. Dasgupta
4 On the Origins of Classical
Economics 11 Equilibrium and Economic
Distribution and value from Theory
William Petty to Adam Smith Edited by Giovanni Caravale
Tony Aspromourgos
12 Austrian Economics in Debate
5 The Economics of Joan Edited by Willem Keizer,
Robinson Bert Tieben and Rudy van Zijp
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Marcuzzo, Luigi Pasinetti and 13 Ancient Economic Thought
Alesandro Roncaglia Edited by B. B. Price
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Albert Jolink Frances Hutchinson and
Brian Burkitt
7 Keynes and the ‘Classics’
A study in language, epistemology 15 Economic Careers
and mistaken identities Economics and economists in
Michel Verdon Britain 1930–1970
Keith Tribe
16 Understanding ‘Classical’ 25 Marx’s Concept of Money
Economics The God of commodities
Studies in the long-period theory Anitra Nelson
Heinz Kurz and Neri Salvadori
26 The Economics of James Steuart
17 History of Environmental Edited by Ramón Tortajada
Economic Thought
E. Kula 27 The Development of Economics
in Europe since 1945
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Communist and Post-
Communist Europe 28 The Canon in the History of
Edited by Hans-Jürgen Wagener Economics
Critical essays
19 Studies in the History of French Edited by Michalis Psalidopoulos
Political Economy
From Bodin to Walras 29 Money and Growth
Edited by Gilbert Faccarello Selected papers of Allyn Abbott
Young
20 The Economics of John Rae Edited by Perry G. Mehrling and
Edited by O. F. Hamouda, C. Lee Roger J. Sandilands
and D. Mair
30 The Social Economics of
21 Keynes and the Neoclassical Jean-Baptiste Say
Synthesis Markets and virtue
Einsteinian versus Newtonian Evelyn L. Forget
macroeconomics
Teodoro Dario Togati 31 The Foundations of
Laissez-Faire
22 Historical Perspectives on The economics of Pierre de
Macroeconomics Boisguilbert
Sixty years after the ‘General Gilbert Faccarello
Theory’
Edited by Philippe Fontaine 32 John Ruskin’s Political
and Albert Jolink Economy
Willie Henderson
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The leisure class and sovereignty Economic Thought
Edited by Warren J. Samuels Essays in honour of
R. D. C. Black
24 Evolution of Austrian Edited by Antoin E. Murphy and
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From Menger to Lachmann
Sandye Gloria
34 Towards an Unknown Marx 42 Piero Sraffa’s Political Economy
A commentary on the manuscripts A centenary estimate
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35 Economics and Interdisciplinary 43 The Contribution of Joseph
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Essays in memory of 44 On the Development of
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38 Piero Sraffa 46 Pareto, Economics and Society
His life, thought and cultural The mechanical analogy
heritage Michael McLure
Alessandro Roncaglia
47 The Cambridge Controversies
39 Equilibrium and Disequilibrium in Capital Theory
in Economic Theory A study in the logic of theory
The Marshall–Walras divide development
Michel de Vroey Jack Birner
40 The German Historical School 48 Economics Broadly Considered
The historical and ethical Essays in honour of
approach to economics Warren J. Samuels
Edited by Yuichi Shionoya Edited by Steven G. Medema,
Jeff Biddle and John B. Davis
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Hollander Six studies of the work of doctor-
Edited by Sandra Peart and economists
Evelyn Forget Edited by Peter Groenewegen
50 The Spread of Political 57 Classics and Moderns in
Economy and the Economics, Volume I
Professionalisation of Essays on nineteenth and
Economists twentieth century economic
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America and Japan in the Edited by Peter Groenewegen
nineteenth century
Massimo Augello and 58 Classics and Moderns in
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Essays on nineteenth and
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memory
Steven G. Medema and 59 Marshall’s Evolutionary
Warren J. Samuels Economics
Tiziano Raffaelli
52 Competing Economic Theories
Essays in memory of 60 Money, Time and Rationality
Giovanni Caravale in Max Weber
Edited by Sergio Nisticò and Austrian connections
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53 Economic Thought and Policy in 61 Classical Macroeconomics
Less Developed Europe Some modern variations and
The nineteenth century distortions
Edited by Michalis Psalidopoulos James C. W. Ahiakpor
and Maria-Eugenia Almedia Mata
62 The Historical School of
54 Family Fictions and Economics in England and
Family Facts Japan
Harriet Martineau, Adolphe Tamotsu Nishizawa
Quetelet and the population
question in England 1798–1859 63 Classical Economics and
Brian Cooper Modern Theory
Studies in long-period analysis
55 Eighteeth-Century Economics Heinz D. Kurz and Neri Salvadori
Peter Groenewegen
64 A Bibliography of Female
56 The Rise of Political Economy in Economic Thought to 1940
the Scottish Enlightenment Kirsten K. Madden, Janet A. Sietz
Edited by Tatsuya Sakamoto and and Michele Pujol
Hideo Tanaka
65 Economics, Economists and 73 Knut Wicksell on Poverty
Expectations No place is too exalted
From microfoundations to Knut Wicksell
macroeconomics
Warren Young, Robert Leeson 74 Economists in Cambridge
and William Darity Jnr. A study through their
correspondence 1907–1946
66 The Political Economy of Public Edited by M. C. Marcuzzo and
Finance in Britain, 1767–1873 A. Rosselli
Takuo Dome
75 The Experiment in the History
67 Essays in the History of of Economics
Economics Edited by Philippe Fontaine and
Warren J. Samuels, Robert Leonard
Willie Henderson,
Kirk D. Johnson and 76 At the Origins of Mathematical
Marianne Johnson Economics
The Economics of A. N. Isnard
68 History and Political Economy (1748–1803)
Essays in honour of P. D. Richard van den Berg
Groenewegen
Edited by Tony Aspromourgos 77 Money and Exchange
and John Lodewijks Folktales and reality
Sasan Fayazmanesh
69 The Tradition of Free Trade
Lars Magnusson 78 Economic Development and
Social Change
70 Evolution of the Market Process Historical roots and modern
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Edited by Michel Bellet, George Stathakis and
Sandye Gloria-Palermo and Gianni Vaggi
Abdallah Zouache
79 Ethical Codes and Income
71 Consumption as an Investment Distribution
The fear of goods from Hesiod to A study of John Bates Clark and
Adam Smith Thorstein Veblen
Cosimo Perrotta Guglielmo Forges Davanzati
72 Jean-Baptiste Say and the 80 Evaluating Adam Smith
Classical Canon in Economics Creating the wealth of nations
The British connection in French Willie Henderson
classicism
Samuel Hollander
81 Civil Happiness 89 David Hume’s Political
Economics and human flourishing Economy
in historical perspective Edited by Carl Wennerlind and
Luigino Bruni Margaret Schabas
82 New Voices on Adam Smith 90 Interpreting Classical
Edited by Leonidas Montes and Economics
Eric Schliesser Studies in long-period analysis
Heinz D. Kurz and Neri Salvadori
83 Making Chicago Price Theory
Milton Friedman–George Stigler 91 Keynes’s Vision
correspondence, 1945–1957 Why the Great Depression did not
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84 William Stanley Jevons and the 92 Monetary Theory in Retrospect
Cutting Edge of Economics The selected essays of
Bert Mosselmans Filippo Cesarano
Filippo Cesarano
85 A History of Econometrics in
France 93 Keynes’s Theoretical
From nature to models Development
Philippe Le Gall From the tract to the
general theory
86 Money and Markets Toshiaki Hirai
A doctrinal approach
Edited by Alberto Giacomin and 94 Leading Contemporary
Maria Cristina Marcuzzo Economists
Economics at the cutting edge
87 Considerations on the Edited by Steven Pressman
Fundamental Principles of Pure
Political Economy 95 The Science of Wealth
Vilfredo Pareto (Edited by Adam Smith and the framing of
Roberto Marchionatti and political economy
Fiorenzo Mornati) Tony Aspromourgos
88 The Years of High Econometrics
A short history of the generation
that reinvented economics
Francisco Louçã

The Science of Wealth
Adam Smith and the framing of
political economy
Tony Aspromourgos