Economist and philosopher, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, E Scotland, UK. He studied at Glasgow and Oxford, and became professor of logic at Glasgow (1751), but took up the chair of moral philosophy the following year. In 1776 he moved to London, where he published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), the first major work of political economy. This examined in detail the consequences of economic freedom, such as division of labour, the function of markets, and the international implications of a laissez-faire economy. His appointment as commissioner of customs in 1778 took him back to Edinburgh.

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