SAT写作经典素材之亚当·斯密

　　Adam Smith

　　Scottish economist, educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He became professor of moral philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow in 1752, and while teaching there wrote his Theory of Moral Sentiments , which gave him the beginnings of an international reputation. He traveled on the Continent from 1764 to 1766 as tutor to the duke of Buccleuch and while in France met some of the physiocrats and began to write An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, finally published in 1776.

　　In that work, Smith postulated the theory of the division of labor and emphasized that value arises from the labor expended in the process of production. He was led by the rationalist current of the century, as well as by the more direct influence of Hume and others, to believe that in a laissez-faire economy the impulse of self-interest would bring about the public welfare; at the same time he was capable of appreciating that private groups such as manufacturers might at times oppose the public interest. Smith was opposed to monopolies and the concepts of mercantilism in general but admitted restrictions to free trade, such as the Navigation Acts, as sometimes necessary national economic weapons in the existing state of the world. He also accepted government intervention in the economy that reduced poverty and government regulation in support of workers.

　　Smith wrote before the Industrial Revolution was fully developed, and some of his theories were voided by its development, but as an analyst of institutions and an influence on later economists he has never been surpassed. His pragmatism, as well as the leaven of ethical content and social insight in his thought, differentiates him from the rigidity of David Ricardo and the school of early 19th-century utilitarianism. In 1778, Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland. His Essays on Philosophical Subjects appeared posthumously.

　　See biographies by J. Rae and I. S. Ross ; studies by E. Ginzberg, T. D. Campbell , S. Hollander , and E. Rothschild .

　　亚当斯密是经济学的主要创立者。1723年亚当斯密出生在苏格兰法夫郡的寇克卡迪。亚当斯密的父亲也叫亚当斯密，是律师、也是苏格兰的军法官和寇克卡迪的海关监督，在亚当斯密出生前几个月去世;母亲玛格丽特是法夫郡斯特拉森德利大地主约翰道格拉斯的女儿，亚当斯密一生与母亲相依为命，终身未娶。