 Hi there, my name is Don Boudreau. I'm a professor of economics at George Mason University and a senior fellow at George Mason's Mercatus Center. And I'm here today to talk about Adam Smith and his views on trade and the economy. So let's get started. Adam Smith was very much influenced by the physiocrats in one way, but he explicitly rejected physiocracy in another. Adam Smith traveled to France, a decade or so before he published The Wealth of Nations. He was the tutor of the Duke of Buckloo. So they, as was the case then, wealthy people had their young sons escorted around the European continent by prominent scholars. Adam Smith was hired to be the tutor for this Duke. One of the countries he visited was France. While in France, Smith met Francois Kiné, who is considered the founder of, certainly the greatest physiocrat. The physiocrats were prominent in that they were certainly supporters of free trade. And for that, Adam Smith really admired their stance and he found their arguments in favor of free trade compelling. But the physiocrats had this notion that all wealth, all prosperity ultimately comes from agriculture, the physical production of food. And Adam Smith very gently, but very nevertheless firmly and convincingly explained in The Wealth of Nations why the physiocratic belief that manufacturing and commerce are not productive is mistaken. The physiocrats were right in supporting a policy of free trade. The physiocrats were outspoken and clear opponents of the French practice of mercantilism. Mercantilism in the 17th and 18th century was brought to an artistic peak in France. The French ministers of finance were master mercantilists and the physiocrats in France reacted against this. Smith accepted their arguments for free trade. To that extent, he went along with physiocracy, but he rejected the fundamental premise of physiocracy, namely that all wealth springs from agriculture. It's interesting to note that in The Wealth of Nations, one of the few people that Adam Smith mentions favorably by name is Francois Kiné. That's how much he really admired him and he mentions his admiration of Kiné.