New look ... Adam Smith, the father of free trade, on the new English and Welsh £20 note. Despite being a part of Britain, Scotland and Northern Ireland have differently designed notes than the English and Welsh, although coins are exactly the same.
Not only are the MAJORITY of the members of the British Cabinet in the Government are Scots and Scots, undemocratically, have a say in all political matters in England whereas there are certain political matters in Scotland that the English can have NO say on (in effect, Scotland rules England), but now Scots are even appearing on ENGLISH paper money
England and Wales share the same notes, whereas those in Scotland and Northern Ireland, despite being a part of the UK, are different, although coins are the same.
First Scot face on new £20 note
A NEW £20 note will be introduced early next year — and for the first time it features a SCOT.
Economist Adam Smith’s face will be used with an image of pin manufacturing.
Just three other faces have appeared on the notes: William Shakespeare, from 1970 to 1993; scientist Michael Faraday, from 1991 to 2001 and since June 1999 English composer Sir Edward Elgar.
Smith, who died aged 67 in 1790, wrote a famous article about how pin production can be increased if workers specialise within a team.
His economic ideas also helped Britain to become the world's foremost economic power in the 1800s.
*****************************************************************
The TimesOctober 30, 2006
The new notes will feature Adam Smith and the pin factory (above) he used to illustrate the benifits of the division of labour in his seminal work, which is revered by businessmen such as Bill Gates (Bank of England/PA)
£20 reward for the father of free trade
By Gabriel Rozenberg, Economics Reporter
HE WAS awkward, absent-minded and had no head for business, according to his obituary in The Times. But today Adam Smith will have his reputation fixed as the father of modern economics as he becomes the latest historical figure to appear on the £20 note.
Smith, who died in 1790, having lived out his days as a quiet Customs official with his mother, will become the first Scotsman to appear on a Bank of England note when he replaces Edward Elgar next spring.
He was the author of The Wealth of Nations, which made the case for free markets and free trade against the mercantilist philosophy of the 18th century, and which argued that individual self-interest would promote the common good “led by an invisible hand”. His principles became the cornerstone of Britain’s 19th-century industrial might.
English composer Sir Edward Elgar is currently on the back of the £20 note
He is revered by Baroness Thatcher, and has also been championed by Gordon Brown, who argues that Smith stood for supporting the most vulnerable in society
The Chancellor is proud of having been born in the same town, Kirkcaldy, as the economist (however, Brown loves taxes and tries to find new ways to tax us whereas Adam Smith HATED taxation).
The honouring of Smith was announced last night by Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England.
Giving the annual Adam Smith Lecture in Kirkcaldy, Mr King said: “It is a sign of the resurgence of interest in Adam Smith that at almost every point on the political spectrum one can find people who claim Smith as their own.”
He praised Smith’s writing as remarkable for its “comprehensive and eclectic examination of ideas and facts”, and said that he had influenced the way the world thinks about the route to economic prosperity.
There are more than a billion £20 notes in circulation, according to the Bank. The notes have an average lifespan of about two years.
The new note will also carry a picture of the pin factory used by Smith to illustrate his observations and theories in The Wealth of Nations.
At a time when manufacturing was in its infancy, Smith was the first to recognise the productivity gains from dividing of labour into specialised tasks. Next to the picture will be the quotation, “and the great increase in the quantity of work that results”. Mr King said: “From next spring, when visitors to our country look carefully at their new £20 notes . . . I hope they will absorb the lesson that specialisation in production and trade across the world are the way to improve living standards in all countries. And perhaps when they return home they will press their own politicians to support the opening up of trade, which has been at the heart of the British Government’s efforts to reform the world economy.”
Economists expressed their delight. Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, a think-tank, said: “Smith is the father of modern economics. He was for free markets, deregulation, low taxes and individual freedom.” The institute is building a £250,000 life-size bronze statue of Smith, which it hopes to place on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh next year.
WHO WAS ADAM SMITH?
The economist and philosopher was a leading figure of the Scottish Intellectual Enlightenment
After studying at Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford, he wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1769) and The Wealth of Nations (1776)
He championed free trade and pioneered the modern market economy
He was born in Fife, briefly kidnapped by gypsies at 4, and lived and died in Edinburgh
When Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man, gave Bill Gates’s charitable foundation $31billion (£16billion), Gates gave him his personal copy of The Wealth of Nations “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages” — Chapter 2, The Wealth of Nations
thetimesonline.co.uk
Last edited: