Moll Flanders (1722) and an 'invisible hand'!
Yesterday I recommended a new book by James Buchan, Adam Smith and the pursuit of perfect liberty, to be published by Profile Books, London on 13th April.
Let me quote two (of many refreshing) paragraphs of James Buchan to demonstrate why every serious Smithian scholar, and any person interested in Smith’s true legacy, should read it (pre-order from Amazon):
“One could hardly imagine,’ Greenspan said, ‘that today’s awesome array of international transactions would produce the relative economic stability that we experience daily if they were not led by some international version of Smith’s invisible hand.’
Couldn’t one?
The phrase ‘invisible hand’ occurs three times in the million-odd words of Adam Smith’s that have come down to us, and on not one of those occasions does it have anything to do with free-market capitalism or awesome international transactions. One could with better justice claim that Moll Flanders, a resourceful whore in the fiction of Daniel Defoe who also uses the phrase ‘invisible hand’ is another towering contributor to the stability of international markets.’ (Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Liberty, pp 2 and 146, Profile Books, 2006)
It does not come more clearly than that.
James Buchan is to be congratulated for finding the early reference to the invisible hand by Daniel Defoe. We already know of Shakespeare’s even earlier use (1605) in Macbeth, 2:3: ‘thy bloody and invisible hand’, courtesy of Emma Rothschild (2002: Economic sentiments: Adam Smith, Condercet, and the Enlightenment, Harvard University Press, Cambridge), and this new reference from James Buchan undermines the continued false portrayals of Smith’s legacy.
Defoe: ‘A sudden Blow from an almost invisible Hand, blasted all my Happiness’ (Moll Flanders).
References:
Alan Greenspan, Remarks by Chairman Greenspan: Adam Smith, at the Adam Smith Memorial Lecture, Kirkcaldy, Scotland, 6 February, 2005.’ (www.federalreserve.gov)
Daniel Defoe, 1722. Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders Who was Born in Newgate and during a Life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve year a Thief, Eight Year a transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and died Penitent, London
Let me quote two (of many refreshing) paragraphs of James Buchan to demonstrate why every serious Smithian scholar, and any person interested in Smith’s true legacy, should read it (pre-order from Amazon):
“One could hardly imagine,’ Greenspan said, ‘that today’s awesome array of international transactions would produce the relative economic stability that we experience daily if they were not led by some international version of Smith’s invisible hand.’
Couldn’t one?
The phrase ‘invisible hand’ occurs three times in the million-odd words of Adam Smith’s that have come down to us, and on not one of those occasions does it have anything to do with free-market capitalism or awesome international transactions. One could with better justice claim that Moll Flanders, a resourceful whore in the fiction of Daniel Defoe who also uses the phrase ‘invisible hand’ is another towering contributor to the stability of international markets.’ (Adam Smith and the Pursuit of Liberty, pp 2 and 146, Profile Books, 2006)
It does not come more clearly than that.
James Buchan is to be congratulated for finding the early reference to the invisible hand by Daniel Defoe. We already know of Shakespeare’s even earlier use (1605) in Macbeth, 2:3: ‘thy bloody and invisible hand’, courtesy of Emma Rothschild (2002: Economic sentiments: Adam Smith, Condercet, and the Enlightenment, Harvard University Press, Cambridge), and this new reference from James Buchan undermines the continued false portrayals of Smith’s legacy.
Defoe: ‘A sudden Blow from an almost invisible Hand, blasted all my Happiness’ (Moll Flanders).
References:
Alan Greenspan, Remarks by Chairman Greenspan: Adam Smith, at the Adam Smith Memorial Lecture, Kirkcaldy, Scotland, 6 February, 2005.’ (www.federalreserve.gov)
Daniel Defoe, 1722. Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders Who was Born in Newgate and during a Life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve year a Thief, Eight Year a transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and died Penitent, London
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