The great moral philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith, was born on June 5, 1723 in the port town of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, the only son of his parents. Smith was said to have had a somewhat weak constitution and sickly youth, which may have contributed to the especially close relationship that he shared with his mother, who lived until 1784. A possibly, apocryphal, incident from Smith’s youth is worth noting, given his later accomplishments as a political economist and proponent of liberal commercial progress: at the age of three, Smith was abducted from his uncle’s estate by a passing group of itinerant travelers and workers, whom the Scots referred to as ‘tinkers.’
