1720 scots were learning what it was like to be an early failed nation - in the 1700s scottish peoples savings were lost in a failed attempt to build a canal across panama! the result england colonised scotland
bt 1780 adam smith had published 2 definitive books on economics- moral sentimens in 1758 was the last book to be published before the age of machines which started up in 1760 arounf smith's co-worker at glasgow university : first engineer james watt
smith's book on moral sentimemts introduces a hypothesis that almost all americans miscontextualise when they quote smith as champion of free markets; what smith did was to describe the dynamics of a transparent market - he hypothesised if enough actors buyer, seller, suppliers know the costs and quality of the produce then it is in the interest of every actor to maximse trust - his self-interest becomes mutually connected with everyones self-interest - remember this was the last book before machines; with the exception of boating people the vast majority spent their whole lives close to where they were born; the chances wwre high that enough people in many markets knew enough of each other for smith's hi-trust markets to be common
after 1760 smith's book on the first 16 years of humans and machines was completely different; smith had like many compatriots already experience adverse consequences of being clonised by london; he argued for engineerws to take ther inventions to usa on one proviso - wherever they took them demand end of slavery and/or low cost labor markets; in fact smith wanted scotland to become a united state of america- after all scaling consequences of enginners inventions on a continental scale was exciting - and anerica was where scottish and other inventors could partner without being dominated by the colonial rules of london which were now controling trade across a lot of the old world's south facing continents - asia and africa
