The Shaping of Political Economy in the Enlightenment.

It is argued that David Hume's approach to economic, political, and historical issues discloses a unity of purpose and of method and further that the Writings on Economics profoundly affected the shape which Sir James Steuart's Principles was to assume. While Adam Smith's work also shows the extent of his debt to Hume, it is suggested that Smith made it possible for others to detach the study of economics from that of history. The later perception of Smith as founder of the English classical economics helped to obscure the contributions of his predecessors and, in some cases, of the contribution of Smith himself. Copyright 1990 by Scottish Economic Society.