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Adam Smith's stages of history

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  • Anthony Brewer

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine Smith's four stages theory of history as an account of economic and social development, with an emphasis on the arguments and evidence he used to support it. In his biographical account of Smith's life, his friend Dugald Stewart described Smith’s method as 'conjectural history', initiating a debate which has continued ever since. Stewart meant that Smith used (informed) conjecture to fill the unavoidable gaps in the historical evidence, though hostile commentators have interpreted it as saying that Smith simply ignored the facts. This paper sets Smith's account alongside the evidence available to him to try to establish how much of it is pure speculation, unconstrained by historical evidence, and how much is rather a matter of interpreting evidence which can never be complete, as any historian is bound to do. It emerges that Smith did not (usually) neglect or ride roughshod over the evidence as it was available to him, but rather that evidence about some aspects and periods of history simply did not then exist, leaving much in his account that is indeed pure conjecture. The focus of the paper is on Smith, not on contemporaries or predecessors who argued a similar case. It deals with the substance of Smith's case, not with priority.

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony Brewer, 2008. "Adam Smith's stages of history," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 08/601, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
  • Handle: RePEc:bri:uobdis:08/601
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    File URL: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/efm/media/workingpapers/working_papers/pdffiles/dp08601.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Serge Svizzero & Clement Allan Tisdell, 2016. "Economic evolution, diversity of societies and stages of economic development: A critique of theories applied to hunters and gatherers and their successors," Post-Print hal-02147753, HAL.
    2. Serge Svizzero & Clement A. Tisdell & Duncan Watson, 2016. "Economic evolution, diversity of societies and stages of economic development: A critique of theories applied to hunters and gatherers and their successors," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 1161322-116, December.
    3. Ecem Okan, 2017. "How did it all begin? Adam Smith on the early and rude state of society and the age of hunters," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(6), pages 1247-1276, November.
    4. Ecem Okan, 2017. "How did it all begin? Adam Smith on the early and rude state of society and the age of hunters," Post-Print hal-03171143, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adam Smith; history; four stages; conjectural history;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)

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