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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Adam Smith
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(1723–90) Scottish political philosopher and economist, whose Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) has been an extremely influential work. He lectured from 1748 in Edinburgh, where he became a close friend of *Hume, and he was then a professor (1751–63) at the university of Glasgow. The Wealth of Nations analyzes the division of labour, the concept of value, the nature of capital and investment, and systems of government and taxation.
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Smith concludes that economic well-being derives from the combined self-interest of people operating in a free market, and that government intervention should therefore be limited to breaking up monopolies (which frustrate the working of the market); he allows government a role outside the market, in the provision of defence, major capital projects such as roads, and education where not otherwise available. His ideas have been vigorously championed in recent years – witness the *think-tank named after him – and they were central to government theory in the *Thatcher period.
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