Letters to Baker Street
Adam Smith in the Canon
“I wanted to speak to Mr. Smith” (The Sign of the Four)
The Canon may not have a character named Adam Smith, but is it a coincidence that one of his key free market concepts is mentioned? In “The Crooked Man,” we read the following passage about the changing moods of Colonel Barclay:
“As the major expressed it, the smile had often been struck from his mouth, as if by some invisible hand, when he has been joining the gaieties and chaff of the mess-table.”
Who among us can read this without thinking of the famous phrase from Smith’s The Wealth of Nations about how the pursuit of individual economic self-interest leads to benefits for all, a key argument in support of free market capitalism?
Smith wrote that “he intends only his own gain; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention … By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”
