HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM SMITH

Dr Eamon Butler, of the Adam Smith Institute, posts (16 June) HERE a “Happy Birthday to Adam Smith”, a sentiment with which I am glad to join (disclosure: I am a Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute).

I was also pleased to note that the text contains no mention of the ‘invisible hand’!

I particularly agree with Eamonn’s the last paragraph:

“Smith was a quiet and modest man. But he would give both the US and the UK – not to mention Russia, China, India, Indonesia and all the other countries who have been raising trade barriers – a very stern talking to.”

And so say all of us at Lost Legacy!

* 16 JUNE was the date of his baptism. His actual birth date was not recorded. As young Adam was a  sickly child through his infancy to at least his 8th of 9th birthday, it was the custom in those days to baptise sickly babies in case they died very young - child mortality was very common in those days.