Abstract

Although Adam Smith used history extensively in his Wealth of Nations, his contribution to economic history is neither systematised nor explicitly presented. The aimof this paper is to investigate the ways in which history is incorporated in Smith’s political economy and to elucidate the role of historical investigation in Smith’s Wealth of Nations. We propose a “four thematic” approach of Smith’s use of history, corresponding to four distinct ways in which Smith incorporates the historical element in his political economy. First, as method through a progressive version of proto-historical materialism, second, as illustration in order to verify his theoretical conclusions, third, as theory in the form of his stages theory, and, finally, as economic history to describe the emergence of modern Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

抽象的

尽管亚当·斯密（Adam Smith）在《国富论》中广泛使用了历史，但他对经济历史的贡献既没有系统化也没有明确表述。本文的目的是研究将历史纳入史密斯政治经济学的方式，并阐明历史调查在史密斯《国富论》中的作用。我们提出了史密斯使用历史的“四个主题”方法，对应于史密斯将历史要素纳入其政治经济学的四种不同方式。首先，作为通过原始历史唯物主义的渐进形式的方法，其次，作为例证，以验证其理论结论，其次，作为其阶段理论形式的理论，最后，作为描述历史出现的经济历史。罗马帝国陷落后的现代欧洲。