International Adam Smith Society & The World in 1776/2026
Date: 17-20th June 2026
Location: University of Glasgow, Scotland
Join the International Adam Smith Society annual convention & The World in 1776/2026 The Wealth of Nations at 250 British Academy conference.
The World in 1776/2026: The Wealth of Nations at 250
The Wealth of Nations is one of the most influential, yet misunderstood, books in human history. It is known today mostly as a work of economics, when it was much more. Adam Smith’s analysis of the new form of freedom that was emerging during the Enlightenment has shaped the way we think about morality and politics, as well as the economy. It was written against the backdrop of a revolutionary age, in which the emergence of empires transformed the global economy and new Enlightenment ideas sowed the seeds of representative government. Writing on the eve of the American Revolution, Smith used his expertise in political economy to argue against the imperial policies of the time, including slavery, as inconsistent with Enlightenment values. He critiqued the power of large corporations and accused them of corrupting the British government and undermining the free market.The World in 1776: The Wealth of Empires
This panel will cover Smith’s radical critique of the Atlantic slave trade, the East India Company, and British imperialism in India and Africa; and the way Smith’s ideas fit into Enlightenment debates on empire; and the relevance of Smith’s critique for contemporary debates on the legacies of slavery and empire.
The World in 1776: The Age of Revolutions
This panel will cover Smith’s analysis of the politics and economics of British rule in the American colonies, and situate his prescient critique on the eve of the American Revolution at the midpoint of a revolutionary century that saw uprisings from France to Haiti to Venezuela.
The World in 2026 Monopolists and Robber Barons
This will cover Smith’s critique of corporations and their role in both state capture and the oppression of workers, but from a contemporary perspective, considering what Smith’s ideas contribute to our understanding of the power of Amazon or Exxon Mobil, or the conditions of workers in global supply chains.
The World in 2026: Commerce and Justice
This panel will examine Smith as a moral theorist, drawing on his account of sympathy (empathy), and the economic as a relational and social domain to comment on contemporary issues like wealth inequality, generational inequality, climate change and climate justice.
During the British Academy and International Adam Smith Society Conference, we are delighted to offer a program of historical walking tours and archival exhibits that bring the 18th century world of the Wealth of Nations to life. Places for these cultural activities are limited, and we ask both conference attendees and members of the public to sign up here. General sign-up for the conference will not grant entry to the tour and the archive visit. Note that the archive visit will take place approximately a 10-minute walk from the conference venue, while the tours will start and finish approximately a 20-minute journey by public transit from the conference venue.
Friday 19th June, 7-10pm
Join fellow delgates and speakers at Glasgow's Arta, a magical Mediterranean inspired venue in the heart of the Merchant City.
Inspired by the surroundings, attendees will sit down to a Tapas Experience, served family-style, it will provide you an opportunity to catch up with friends old and new. Included in the ticket fee is also a 1/2 bottle of wine or soft drinks.
Wednesday
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 1800 |
Civic Welcome from the Lord Provost of Glasgow (Ferguson Room, Gilbert Scott Building) Civic Welcome: Depute Lord Provost, Bailie Christy Mearns
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Thursday
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
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0900-1030 |
British Academy Plenary 1: Empires and Revolutions (Advanced Research Centre 237ABC) Chair: Maha Rafi Atal Glory Liu – ‘Smith and the American Revolution’ Sandra Peart – ‘Smith on Independence: from Slavery to Sovereignty’ Spyridon Tegos – ‘Adam Smith on Political Misnomers: The Cases of Regimes that conceal other Regimes, Ancient and Modern’ |
| 1000-1130 | Archive Exhibit Group 1 Craig Smith Pre-book Archive Exhibit Group 1 tour |
| 1030-1100 | Break (Advanced Research Centre Atrium) |
| 1130-1300 |
Archive Exhibit Group 2 Michael Frazer |
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1100-1230 |
Panels 1 |
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British Academy Panel 1. The World in 1776: The Wealth of Empires (Advanced Research Centre 237 A) Chair: Jimena Hurtado Hiroki Ueno ‘Adam Smith and the Imperial Enlightenment: Tory Advocacy of American Independence, New British History, and Pan-European Political Economy in the Wealth of Nations’ Ana Paula Londe Silva ‘Adam Smith’s engagement with the public debate on imperial political economy: lessons from his library’ Mark Rathbone ‘Between Silence and Agency: Africa in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations’ |
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Smith in Geneva (Advanced Research Centre 237 BC) Chair: Craig Smith Karen Horn ‘Adam Smith Stopped at Geneva: the Nature and Causes of his References to Switzerland’ F.E. Guerra-Pujol and Alain Alcouffe ‘Adam Smith’s Encounters in Geneva (1765–1766): The Duchesse d’Enville, Enlightenment Sociability, and a Republican Laboratory’ |
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Sympathy, Exchange, and Cooperation (Adam Smith Building 487) Chair: Michele Bee Colette Lappin ‘The Overlooked Role of Sympathy in the Wealth of Nations’ Leonidas Montes ‘Adam Smith’s foundational character of exchange’ Thaís Alves Costa and Evandro Barbosa ‘The Impartial Spectator Under Strain: Moral Challenges in Smith’s Commercial Society’ |
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Political Thought (Adam Smith Building 582) Chair: James A. Harris Yuchen Sun ‘What is Commercial Society? Adam Smith, J. G. A. Pocock, and Istvan Hont Revisited’ Zack Rauwald and Yiftah Elazar ‘Barbarism and its civilisation in the thought of Adam Smith’ Alejandra M. Salinas ‘Readings of Smith by Contemporary Political Philosophers: Adrian Vermeule’ |
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1230-1400 |
Lunch (Advanced Research Centre Atrium) |
| 1300-1400 | THETS Meeting (Adam Smith Building 582) |
| CSSP Meeting (Adam Smith Building 487) | |
| IASS Board (Advanced Research Centre 244) | |
| 1300 | Radical Glasgow Walking Tour Group 1 Pre-book Radical Glasgow Walking Tour Group 1 |
| 1400 |
Archive Exhibit Group 3 Maha Rafi Atal |
| 1400-1530 |
British Academy Plenary 2 – Robber Barons (Advanced Research Centre 237 ABC) Chair: Craig Smith Erin Lockwood – ‘Exorbitant profits, expensive luxury, and subservient interests: how The Wealth of Nations clarifies the structural power of contemporary big tech’ Erik Peinert – ‘Monopoly Politics’ |
| 1530-1600 | Break |
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1600-1730 |
Panels 2 |
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British Academy Panel 2. The World in 1776: The Age of Revolutions (Adam Smith Building 489) Chair: Craig Smith Mark Skousen ‘Benjamin Franklin: Adam Smith's Invisible Hand?’ Daniel B. Klein and Michaela Loughran ‘Adam Smith's hopes for a liberal America’ Yufei Zhao ‘Adam Smith on Empire, Colonialism, and the Sympathy Theory of Representation’ |
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Feudalism and Agriculture (Adam Smith Building 582) Chair: Leo Steeds Ivan Prates Sternick ‘Adam Smith on the Scottish Highlands and the social consequences of agricultural improvement’ Fabrizio Simon ‘Adam Smith and the Enlightenment Debate on Feudalism’ Jou Ishii ‘Agrarian system in classical political economy and Adam Smith’ |
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The Reception of the Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith Building 587) Chair: Richard van den Berg Lotte List ‘Smith in the Sattelzeit: history and progress’ Haoming Liu ‘After Adam Smith: the Southern Migration of Scottish Political Economy’ Naoki Fujimoto ‘Adam Smith in Early Nineteenth-Century Ireland: William Thompson’s Smithian Critique of Mercantilism and Empire’ |
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Morality and Commercial Society (Adam Smith Building 487) Chair: Lauren Kopajtic John McHugh ‘Smith’s Political Concerns about the Division of Labor’ John Alcorn ‘Adam Smith on Morality-and-Markets in Retrospect’ |
Friday
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
|
0900-1030 |
British Academy Plenary 3 – Commerce and Justice (Advanced Research Centre 237 BC) Chair: Michael L. Frazer James Otteson ‘The Dignity of the “Lowest Ranks of the People”: Adam Smith on Respect and Moral Equality.’ Eoin McLaughlin ‘Towards an Inclusive Wealth of Nations’ |
| 1030-1100 | Break (Advanced Research Centre Atrium) |
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1100-1230 |
Panels 3 |
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British Academy 3. The World in 2026 Monopolists and Robber Barons (Advanced Research Centre 237 B) Chair: Maha Rafi Atal Spencer Pack ‘Adam Smith on 21st Century Attempts to Create New Forms of Money: Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies’ Stefan Fritsch ‘Adam Smith and Corporate Power in the Era of Digital Feudalism’ |
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Smith’s Legacy (Advanced Research Centre 237 C) Chair: Alex Trew Gabriel F. Benzecry and Daniel J. Smith ‘Quantifying Adam Smith's Legacy: Coverage in Economic Thought Textbooks’ Douglas E. Stevens ‘The Chicago School’s Distorted View of The Wealth of Nations: Causes, Effects, and Future Opportunities for Corporate Governance’ Charles Kirby, Steve Medema, Steve Pickering, Graeme Roy, Thomas Scotto, Shambhavi Sinha ‘Smith Goes to Washington: Using LLMs to Decode His Legacy in American Legislative Debate’ |
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Feudalism and Mercantilism (Advanced Research Centre 225) Chair: Darwyyn Deo Dan Clinkman ‘What is the Wealth of Nations? Feudalism, Mercantilism and Adam Smith’s Revolutionary Economics’ Kevin Forbes ‘Rethinking Adam Smith’s Views on Collusion’ Daniel B Klein and Jacob R. Hall ‘Why Lords Went for Luxuries: A Riff on Adam Smith’ |
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Justice (Adam Smith Building 141 A) Chair: Michael L. Frazer Otto Lehto ‘The Evolutionary Grammar of Liberty: Smith’s Radicalisation of Narrow Humean Justice’ Robin Paul Malloy ‘Smithian Insights on the Relationship Among Justice, Property, and Markets’ |
|
| 1230-1400 | Lunch (Advanced Research Centre Atrium) |
| 1300-1400 | IASS Meeting (Advanced Research Centre 237 A) |
|
1400-1530 |
Panels 4 |
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British Academy Panel 4. The World in 2026: Commerce and Justice (Advanced Research Centre 237 B) Chair: Maha Rafi Atal Kristen Collins ‘A Smithian Approach to Recognition, Representation, and Masculinity’ Kimberlee Josephson ‘Why Sustainable Food Access Depends on Market Coordination’ Leo Steeds ‘Interpreting Adam Smith's "natural liberty" in the Anthropocene’ |
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Smith in Scotland (Advanced Research Centre 237 C) Chair: Craig Smith Ewan McCall ‘The Letter of the Law: The unlikely discovery of Adam Smith's Day in Court’ Gordon Povey 'Adam Smith, the man and some myths’. |
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The Global Impact of the Wealth of Nations (Advanced Research Centre 225) Chair: Hiroyuki Ota Paul Tonks ‘Adam Smith and Enlightenment in Korea: Exploring the Global Impact of Scottish Thought’ Alfredo Félix Blanco ‘The Influence of Adam Smith on Argentine Liberal Thinkers in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century’ Tianqi Su, Yuan Liu, and Pingyu Shao ‘From Guojia (State) to Guomin (People): The Conceptual Transformations of “Wealth” in Chinese Translations of Adam Smith’ |
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Equality, Inequality, and Public Goods (Advanced Research Centre 237A) Chair: Michael L. Frazer Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay ‘On the history of public goods, from Adam Smith to Theodore Groves’ Jimena Hurtado ‘From Admiration to Industry: The Aesthetic Economy of Adam Smith’ Christel Fricke ‘Justice, Solidarity, and the Limits of Accountability: Adam Smith’s Response to Joseph Butler’ |
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Applying Smith to the Contemporary (Adam Smith Building 404) Chair: Keith Hankins Omar Bin Bayah ‘The Wealth of Nations in a Changing World (1776–2026): From Pins to Parameters’ Olena Nesterenko ‘Adam Smith's Classic Ideas in Response to Modern Challenges’ Eyüp Özveren and Mustafa Erdem Sakinç ‘Adam Smith on the Business Enterprise: The Wealth of Nations Revisited’ |
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| 1530-1600 | Break (Advanced Research Centre Atrium) |
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1600-1730 |
Panels 5 |
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BA Workshop Session (Advanced Research Centre 225) Chair: Maha Rafi Atal |
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Jurisprudence (Adam Smith Building 141A) Chair: Ernest Metzger Toshiaki Ota ‘‘Faction’ and ‘Public Spirit’ in Adam Smith within the Tradition of Scottish Natural Jurisprudence’ Chapin Cimino ‘Adam Smith & Modern (Virtue) Jurisprudence: Liability or Strength?’ Mario J. Rizzo ‘Adam Smith, Eclectic Philosopher of Law?’ |
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WN in Context (Adam Smith Building 141B) Chair: Zack Rauwald Richard van den Berg ‘Adam Smith and the machinery debates of his time’ Ronald MacDonald ‘After Egoism: The Wealth of Nations in its Theo-Ethical Context’ Qing Guo, Huilin Chen, Tianqi Su ‘Travelers and Transmission: The Translation and Sinicization of The Wealth of Nations in Late Qing China’ |
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Religion (Adam Smith Building 588) Chair: David Raynor Brendan Long ‘A Summary of the current debate on Smith’s Theism’ María Alejandra Carrasco ‘Adam Smith’s WN and the (non-religious) principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church’ Gordon Graham ‘Religious Liberty: a Smithian Perspective’ |
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Smith’s Method (Advanced Research Centre 237A) Chair: Michele Bee Kyosuke Misawa ‘Adam Smith on Gravity’ Erik Matson ‘Minding the Gaps: Reality, Theory, and policy in Adam Smith’ |
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Smith’s Influences and Influence (Adam Smith Building 404) Chair: TBC Alvaro Perpere ‘Francisco Sanchez de Brozas and Adam Smith Considerations Concerning the First Formation on Languages. Rational Grammar and Conjectural History’ Giovanni Gellera ‘John Mair on Usury, Trade and Wealth’ Luiz Felipe Bruzzi Curi and Alexandre Mendes Cunha ‘From the Luso-Brazilian Empire to Germany: Karl Murhard as a Smithian translator in the early 19th century’ |
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1900-2200 |
Delegate Dinner at Arta |
Saturday
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
|
0900-1030 |
Panels 6 |
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Markets and Morality (James McCune Smith Building 429) Chair: Paul Tonks Çınla Akdere ‘Imagination and Its Impact on the Labor Market : A Smithian interpretation of adolescents’ future-oriented cognitions’ Sigve Tjøtta ‘Morality in Market and Gift Exchange Societies’ Robert Fudge ‘Adam Smith: Champion of Dignity’ |
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Moral Philosophy (James McCune Smith Building 530) Chair: Michael L. Frazer Keith Hankins and Kirun Sankaran ‘Scaling the Impartial Spectator’ Jason S. Canon ‘On Smith’s Critical Sentimentalism’ Hiroyuki Ota ‘Adam Smith and the idea of Moral Good’ |
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Reading the Wealth of Nations (James McCune Smith Building 629) Chair: Craig Smith Jerome Lange ‘Recovering the Unifying Demographic Dimension of the Wealth of Nations’ Julio Elias and Walter Castro ‘Adam Smith, Experimental Innovator, through the Lenses of Conceptual Innovators’ F. E. Guerra Pujol and Salim Rashid ‘Beyond Das Adam Smith Problem’ |
|
| 1000 |
Radical Glasgow Walking Tour Group 2 |
| 1030-1100 | Break (James McCune Smith Building Atrium) |
|
1100-1230 |
Panels 7 |
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Politics (James McCune Smith Building 629) Chair: Michael L. Frazer Shal Marriott ‘Drawing Together and Growing Apart: A Smithian View on Affective Polarization’ John Thrasher ‘Of Pigs and Porters: The Wealth of Nations as Plato’s Republic Inverted’ Barry Weingast ‘A Neglected Element of Adam Smith’s Theory of the State: Military Competition, Evolutionary Survival, and State Capacity. |
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Money (James McCune Smith Building 630) Chair: Craig Smith Paweł Marszał ‘Money as a Commodity, again? The Relevance of Adam Smith's Monetary Theories in the Context of Digital Money’ Mauricio C. Coutinho ‘Smith on circulation’ Carmen Ocampo-Salazar and Danny García ‘The Cooperative Side of Adam Smith: A Case Study in 21st-Century Banking’ |
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| 1230 |
End |
