William Watson Reflects on Adam Smith's Enduring Legacy in The Wealth of Nations
As the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's seminal work The Wealth of Nations approaches next Monday, economist William Watson offers a personal tribute to the book's lasting impact. Watson, who first encountered Smith's masterpiece as an economics undergraduate, recalls a cake baked by friends with the icing message: "The division of labour is limited by the extent of the market." This early fascination with Smith's ideas has persisted throughout his career.
The Majestic Prose of an 18th-Century Master
Watson identifies Smith's language as one of the work's most remarkable features. While modern publications like The New York Times average 15-word sentences, Smith's opening sentence in The Wealth of Nations spans 48 words. A random sampling of one chapter revealed an average sentence length of nearly 34 words across 8,361 words, punctuated by 21 semicolons.
"I fancied the rhythm of the waves rolling in from the North Sea subliminally set the cadence of his prose," Watson muses, describing how he would show students Google Maps Street View of Kirkcaldy, the Scottish seaside town where Smith was born and raised.
Smith's sentences often feature multiple subordinate clauses that wind through complex ideas before concluding with sardonic observations about public or philosophical folly. Watson wonders whether 18th-century readers possessed greater concentration skills to navigate this elegant complexity, or if our post-Hemingway staccato style has diminished our attention spans.
Acute Insights into Human Nature and Markets
Beyond the prose, Watson celebrates Smith's profound understanding of human nature and the tension between self-interest and altruism. This apparent contradiction between The Wealth of Nations (1776) and Smith's earlier work The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) has been dubbed "Das Adam Smith Problem" in philosophical circles.
The solution, Watson argues, lies in markets themselves, which moderate the extremes of self-interest. This perspective was recently echoed by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre during his Margaret Thatcher Lecture in London, where he made ample reference to Smith's work.
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices," Watson quotes from Smith, noting this 30-word observation remains remarkably relevant today.
Smith's descriptions of businesspeople cultivating government favor and procuring special treatment provide what Watson calls "a street view of exactly how modern lobbying operates," demonstrating the timelessness of Smith's economic insights.
A Personal Journey with Smith's Masterpiece
Watson still possesses his original classroom copy of The Wealth of Nations—a hardcover Modern Library Giant edition purchased for $5.95, spanning 976 pages. The margins bear extensive scribbles, exclamation marks denoting delight, and enthusiastic underlining of key passages.
Not all sections received equal attention, however. Watson admits to sparse annotation during Smith's 90-page digression on "variations in the value of silver during the course of the four last centuries" and the "appendix on the herring bounty." When he later taught the same course, these sections were skipped entirely.
Despite these occasional longueurs, Watson's appreciation for Smith has only deepened over time. The economist's ability to craft majestic sentences while delivering acute insights into economic behavior continues to resonate a quarter-millennium after publication, proving that some truths about human nature and markets remain constant across centuries.
