NOT ALL MARKETS ARE MORAL

Ma Guangyuan posts (22 November) on The Epoch Times HERE

“The Decline of Economics and the Rise of Donald Trump”

“The gist of early economics was to study the ultimate 

mission of the state and the individual. Adam Smith, the 

founder of economics, was a professor of philosophy and 

ethics. Smith never taught any economics courses in his 

lifetime. When he raised the concept of the “invisible hand,” 

he paid more attention to the moral factors behind the 

market. He believed that the market is moral because 

everyone promotes the progress and development of social 

interests in the pursuit of their own interests.”

COMMENT

Interesting viewpoint.

However, I dispute specific Ma Guangyuan’s assertions: 

‘Smith never taught any economics courses in his lifetime’

I think this is somewhat misleading. Nobody in Britain taught 

economics as we know it today while Adam Smith taught at 

Glasgow University from1751-63. 

The subject of ‘economics’ at the time was mainly addressed in 

books on ‘political economy’ or buried in other courses. 

Smith’s Wealth of Nations was published in 1776 some 13 years 

after he had long ceased to teach, but had continued to study and 

write his longest and celebrated Wealth of Nations.

However, he did teach courses on Jurisprudence during 1749-63 

(roughly about the evolution of laws and governance) which 

included some lectures on political economy’.

For example on Tuesday 29, 1763, Smith taught economics, one 

section of economics text covers six pages in his Lectures on 

Jurisprudence (in 1763, pp.), all of which appeared verbatim 13

years later in the Wealth Nations in 1776 (pp. 341-49).

I do not recognise what Ma Guangyuan has in mind for the 

significance of his assertion.

In respect of the statement "in the pursuit of their own interests", it 

should be remembered that the "pursuit of their own interests" 

was not a general statement of their morality, because self-

interested actions can also be in pursuit of selfish interests as with

lobbying for tariffs and outright bans on imports from which 'jealousy

of trade' consequences followed.