Adam Smith, Settler Colonialism, and Limits of Liberal Anti-Imperialism

• Main Author: INCE, Onur Ulas
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: capitalism; colonialism; empire; political economy; Enlightenment; liberalism; Adam Smith; British Empire; Political Economy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3233; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4490/viewcontent/Ince___Adam_Smith_and_Settler_Colonialism_JOP.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Recent scholarship has claimed Adam Smith's frontal attack on the mercantile system as a precocious expression of liberal anti-imperialism. This paper argues that settler colonialism in North America represented an important exception and limit to Smith’s anti-imperial commitments. Smith spared...