Adam Smith’s views on religion in Moral Sentiments are generally regarded as consistent with, variously, Christianity, Protestantism, Deism, Providentialism or some version of Natural Religion. This paper examines the evidence from his earliest essay, known as The History of Astronomy (posthumous, 1795) and his major work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, through editions 1 to 6, 1759-1790, and locates his hidden views within his known biographical details, the censorious religious environment of 18th-century Scotland, his and relationships with colleagues within the Scottish Enlightenment. His alleged religious views have relevance for modern perceptions of Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations in respect of his alleged implied attachment to divinely-inspired harmony in economic affairs (noticeably in the alleged divine ‘hand of God’ meaning of “an invisible hand”) and to modern assertions that Smith believed that self-interest, whether motivated by benign or selfish intentions, always leads to unintentional public benefits and the promotion of economic growth. From the evidence of his biography and his writings, Smith’s alleged theological beliefs are shown to be unsound, undermining such modern assertions. Part I discusses material relevant to Smith’s scholarship from a new perspective, which shows his drift away from Christianity from 1744 and over the rest of his life. Smith was under social pressure not to openly challenge the dominant religious sentiments of 18th-century Scotland and also under personal pressure to avoid upsetting the religious sensitivities of his beloved mother. Part II examines a selection of the evidence in Moral Sentiments in the earlier editions, while his mother was alive (d. 1784), through to his significant evasions and partly hidden challenges to prescribed theology, which he inserted into his 6th and final edition.

The Hidden Adam Smith in His Alleged Theology

The Phillips Curve: A Rushed Job?

This paper explores the means by which warfare influences domestic commodity markets. It is argued that England during the French Wars provides an ideal testing ground. Four categories of explanatory variables are taken as likely sources of documented changes in English commodity price dis-integration during this period: weather, trade, policy, and wartime events. Empirically, increases in price dispersion are related to all of the above categories. However, the primary means identified by which warfare influenced domestic commodity market integration was through international trade linkages and the arrival of news regarding wartime events.

Foreign Wars, Domestic Markets: England, 1793-1815

We compute the productivity gaps in manufacturing industries by urban, rural less sparse and rural sparse locations in the UK. This is done by using firm-specific total factor productivities, which are estimated by a semi-parametric algorithm within 4-digit manufacturing industries using FAME data over the period 1994-2001, by each location. We analyse the productivity differentials across locations by decomposing them into firm differences within the same industry and by differences that are explained by industry composition effects. Our analysis indicates that at the end of twentieth century a rural-urban divide in manufacturing productivity still remains but there is a tendency of convergence between rural and urban location categories. Even though industry productivity is different by location, industry composition effects are positively correlated with industry productivity by location suggesting that locations with high productivity are also characterised by industrial structures with higher productivity.

Is there a rural-urban divide? Location and productivity of UK manufacturing

List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2013

Review of periodical literature published in 2011 about the economic and social history of Britain and Ireland in 1500-1700

Chris Godden

Papers

Review of periodical literature published in 2011