Adam Smith’s real views on slavery: a reply to Marvin Brown
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چکیده
In this short response I will confine myself to rebutting Brown’s uses and interpretations of Smith rather than addressing the wider argument of the paper. I would note however that it is not uncontroversial whether slavery was economically more productive than employing ‘freemen’ (Smith certainly thought not), even though there was certainly profit to be made in the slavery business. This reflects a difference between business and economics – that some people may have made lots of money selling cigarettes says little about its general economic benefits to society.
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تاریخ انتشار 2010