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Adam Smith versus Sima Qian: Comment on the Tao of markets
Author(s) -
Chiu Y. Stephen,
Yeh RyhSong
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
pacific economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1468-0106
pISSN - 1361-374X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0106.00063
Subject(s) - adam smith , sima , allocative efficiency , economics , invisible hand , agency (philosophy) , debt , function (biology) , philosophy , neoclassical economics , economic history , epistemology , macroeconomics , geophysics , biology , geology , evolutionary biology
In contrast with Professor Young’s views ( Pacific Economic Review , 1, 137–45), this paper argues (1) that Adam Smith came to his conclusion about the “invisible hand” before 1766, and hence the intellectual debt, if any, of Smith to the great Chinese historian Sima Qian via the agency of Turgot and the two Chinese visitors is minimal; and (2) that the allocative function of the price mechanism is explicit not only in The Wealth of Nations but also in Adam Smith’s lecture notes and other writings from his years at Glasgow University before he left for Europe in 1764.