The Liberal Christening

Abstract

This piece shows conclusively that in the 1770s Adam Smith and others christened their political persuasion ‘liberal’ by affixing a political meaning to the word 'liberal'. Liberalism 1.0 was indeed Smithian liberalism. The bodies of evidence: (1) the non-occurrence in English prior to 1769 (with a few notable exceptions); (2) the explosion of ‘liberal plan,’ ‘liberal system,’ ‘liberal principles,’ ‘liberal government,’ ‘liberal policy,’ etc. after 1769; (3) the delayed French, German, Italian, and Spanish uptake of these expressions; (4) the occurrence beginning in the 1770s of Smithian uses of ‘liberal’ in officialdom, notably the Parliamentary record; (5) the occurrence beginning in 1802 of Smithian uses of ‘liberal’ in the Edinburgh Review. In 1960 in The Constitution of Liberty Hayek suggested that ‘liberal’ as a political term was initiated by Smith. He was right, although Smith did not do it single-handedly.

Keywords: Liberalism, Adam Smith, David Hume, William Robertson, Edmund Burke, Ngram

JEL Classification: A1, A2, B1