Abstract

Returning to London in November 1766, Smith spent the next six months as an adviser to Buccleuch, and engaged in government research projects on taxation and management of the Sinking Fund intended to reduce public debt. Other assignments were inquiries into Pacific exploration and the history of Roman colonies as a guide, perhaps, to problems in North America. Buccleuch married in May 1767 and Smith spent the next seven years in Kirkcaldy, struggling with bouts of ill health and the perplexing task of composing WN to his satisfaction. Correspondence of this period reveals that Smith was absorbing new information about grain prices and values of silver, with a view to improving his economic system, through refining its self‐correcting feature governed by the price mechanism, in which rents, wages, and profits are detailed as the factors of production.