----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- The CEA Report for this year ends its Overview with: In 1776, as the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, the great economist Adam Smith wrote: "Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things." Dugald Stewart says that Adam Smith presented the quote in a lecture that he gave sometime around 1750-55. Stewart had a copy (now lost)written in the hand of a secretary who left Smith's service before 1750. The quote does not appear in the 1776 Wealth of Nations. Two quick sources are: Editor's Introduction to the Cannan edition: Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Modern Library: New York, 1937, p. xliii. It is also noted in: Ian Simpson Ross, The Life of Adam Smith, Oxford University Press: New York, 1995, pp 107-8. Paul Heise ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]