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Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

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174.

From THOMAS POWNALL1

A Letter from Governor Pownall to Adam Smith, L.L.D., F.R.S., Being an Examination of Several Points of Doctrine Laid Down in His Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London, [25 Sept.] 17762

[A text of the Letter corrected from the BM copy is presented in Appendix A.]

[1 ]Thomas Pownall (1722–1805), clerk at the Board of Trade 1743–54; Secretary to Gov. of New York 1753; Lt. Gov. New Jersey 1755; Gov. Massachusetts Bay 1757–9; Gov. South Carolina 1760 (did not take up his post); published The Administration of Colonies (1764). As an M.P. 1767–80, he advocated conciliation with America and spoke against Government policy. He was a noted controversialist and when one of his publications appeared in red ink, a contemporary supposed ‘that the Governor was determined that one of his books at least should be red’ (Journal and Corr. of William, Lord Auckland (London, 1861), ii. 237). See Letter 208 addressed to Andreas Holt, dated 26 Oct. 1780, for Smith’s views on his attempt to answer Pownall’s criticisms of WN.

[2 ]Pownall recognizes in WN ‘moral newtonianism’ bearing upon political economy. As a man of experience, he challenges some of the views of Smith the theorist. The most interesting criticisms concern price, patterns of trade, restraints on importations, and the monopoly of the colony trade.

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