The "Wisdom of the State": Adam Smith on China and Tartary

Author(s): RYAN PATRICK HANLEY

Source: The American Political Science Review , May 2014, Vol. 108, No. 2 (May 2014),
pp. 371-382
Published by: American Political Science Association

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 American Political Science Review Vol. 108, No. 2 May 2014
doi: 1 0. 1 01 7/S000305541 4000057 © American Political Science Association 2014

The "Wisdom of the State": Adam Smith on China and Tarta

RYAN PATRICK HANLEY Marquette University
A dam Smith's engagement with China and Tartary is a central yet underappreciated element of
/1 his economic and political thought . This article reconstructs this engagement and demonstrates
y JL its broader significance, arguing that it focuses on three themes: the economic institutions that
promote domestic growth in a manner that alleviates the material conditions of the poorest , the social and
political conditions that minimize the dependence of the poor on the wealthy , and the ethical values and
civic institutions that guarantee the existential survival of the state . This treatment is significant for three
reasons: It offers useful insight into the contested issue of Smith's conception of legitimate state action; it
clarifies Smith's vision of a commercial order that promotes human dignity; and it reveals the depth of
his participation in a specific contextual debate.

2005, 73-75, 116; Millar 2010, 728-30, 733-34; Pitts

tant source in efforts to understand the nature 2005, 39-40; Whelan 2009, 30, 36), it deserves more
Adam tant and source and
implications implications
Smith has in efforts long of been China'of
s to understand
China's regarded economic as the an impor- naturedevel-
economic devel- extended treatment given its significance in his thought.
opment. Western scholars have prominently invokedSmith clearly thought China worth the attention of
Smith to explain how Western capitalism differs from Europeans, especially those interested in questions of
Chinese capitalism and to illuminate the global ordereconomic development. He often reminds readers of
their balance may entail (Arrighi 2007). Asian scholars, his "inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth
at least since the pioneering translations of Yen Fu,of nations" that "China is a much richer country than
have similarly looked to Smith as a source of insightany part of Europe" (WN I.xi.e.34; I.xi.n.l) and that
on domestic economic growth (Chen 2012; Lai 2000)."China has been long one of the richest, that is, one of
And in the wake of Premier Wen Jiabao's recommen- the most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, and
dations of Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (Coase most populous countries in the world" (WN I.viii.24;
and Wang 2012, 184-87; Zakaria 2010), many in China cf. II.V.22).1 This tremendous opulence distinguishes
and beyond have become interested in how Smith's China as a key case study in his own theory of economic
synthesis of the morality of sympathy and the political development. In addition, as the only non-European
economy of self-interest can illuminate the challenges modern society to have reached levels of civilization
China faces as it seeks to synthesize its traditionsand of opulence that rivaled those of Europe, China occu-
social harmony with the emergence of its dynamic pies a singular place in Smith's work. Whereas the cases
market economy (Dorn 2007). Yet for all this, largely of North America and Africa and Bengal that he also
overlooked has been the central element of Smith's re- examined offered indispensable studies of premodern
lationship to China; namely, the striking role that China and precommerciai social stages, in China alone did
and neighboring Tartary play in Smith's own economiche find a non-European civilization in which the opu-
and political thought, particularly in the development lence and luxury and commerce (albeit domestic, not
of his concept of the "wisdom of the state" that lies atforeign, in China's case) that distinguished European
the core of his theory of the proper aims and scope ofcivilization were likewise flourishing. Indeed, China
state power. served for Smith as "a mirror or a model for European
This article aims to remedy this oversight by re- self-evaluation" (Millar 2010, 719) in which his readers
constructing Smith's sustained engagement with both might see the benefits and costs of certain policies of
China and Tartary. Although Smith's engagement with their own, especially those on internal improvements
China has been noted (Arrighi 2007, 57-59; Evensky and international trade.
Smith similarly regarded Tartary as a phenomenon
that deserved European attention. Attesting to the im-
Ryan Patrick Hanley is Associate Professor at Marquette Univer- port and influence of the Tartars, Smith says of them
sity, Department of Political Science, PO Box 1881, Milwaukee, that WI "more of the great revolutions in the world have
53201-1881. Tel: 414 288 3420; FAX: 414 288 3360 (ryan.hanley@ arose from them than any other nation in the world"
marquette.edu).
(LJA iv.53; cf. LJB 28-29). As conceived in the 18th
Earlier versions of this article were presented at the University of
California-Davis (February 2013), Boston College (April 2013), and century, "Tartary" encompassed an enormous swath of
Yale University (April 2013). For their many helpful comments and central Asia (Whelan 2009, 180n24; cf. LJA i.49; LJA
iv.108, 114). Yet Smith's Tartars are largely those of
suggestions, I am grateful to these audiences, and especially to Teresa
Bejan, Nasser Behnegar, Stefan Eich, Bryan Garsten, Christopher
Kelly, Shalini Satkunanandan, Michelle Schwarze, John Scott, Susan
Shell, Steven Smith, and Bob Taylor. I am also very grateful to Jerry
Evensky, Samuel Fleischacker, Jennifer Pitts, Dennis Rasmussen, 1 Citations to Smith's works are to the Glasgow Edition as published
by Oxford University Press and Liberty Fund (1981-87) and take
and Eric Schliesser for detailed comments on an earlier draft. Finally,
the following abbreviations: ED = "Early Draft" of the Wealth of
for their gracious efforts in hosting the visits that initially inspired this
Nations ; FA/FB = Fragments on the Division of Labor; LJ LER =
study, I wish to express my profound gratitude to Professors Jeng-
Guo Chen (Academia Sinica, Taipei) and Luo Wei-Dong (Zhejiang "Letter to the Edinburgh Review"; LJ = Lectures on Jurisprudence ;
University, Hangzhou). TMS = Theory of Moral Sentiments ; and WN = Wealth of Nations.

371

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 The "Wisdom of the State" May 2014

the Mongol invasions ofpractical

certain the 13th
benefits and
was itself shaped14th
by his un- cen
and, more importantly, those
derstanding of
of the moral and the Manchu
practical benefits of com- in
mercial resulted
of the 17th century that society itself. His engagement
in thewith China and
collapse o
Ming dynasty in China and
Tartary its
is also replacement
of substantive import insofar as itby
clari- the
(Davis 1992, 22; Spence 1999,
fies his intention 95-91)-
to defend "the
commercial society on the fir
Chinese event reported grounds in thetoWestern
of its capacity world"
promote human dignity. Re-
Kley 1973, 571; cf. Millar
cent scholars2010, 724-25).
have particularly Smith
emphasized this side
of hisas
regarded China's politics project. Against an older caricature
inextricably boundof Smith up
the politics of neighboring as the champion Tartary. China's
of self-interest or utility, recent work stor
necessarily Tartary's has done much
story as to demonstrate
well; the degree to
indeed, which
it was a
about the tensions between a "barbarous and uncivi- his moral theory was motivated by a concern for dig-
nity (Debes 2012), and indeed the degree to which
lized" people and their opulent and civilized neighbors
(WN I.iii.8; cf. I.xi.g.26). he deserves to be regarded as "a promoter of free
China and Tartary thus commanded Smith's atten- markets not only on efficiency grounds but also on
tion because of the magnitude of their significance on grounds" (Paganelli 2013, 334). His treatment of
moral
the world-historical stage. Yet Smith's treatment of and Tartary is an important contribution to this
China
China and Tartary goes beyond merely recounting this project insofar as it focuses on three issues: first, the
economic institutions that promote domestic growth
significance, and attending to it offers valuable insight
into his broader theoretical project on three fronts.in a manner that alleviates the material conditions of
First and most importantly, Smith's engagementthe withpoorest; second, the social and political conditions
China and Tartary shaped his vision of the proper ends
that minimize or eliminate the dependence of the poor
and scope of state action. Indeed the principal focus of wealthy; and third, the civic values and institu-
on the
Smith's treatments of China and Tartary is defining the needed to guarantee the existential survival of the
tions
proper sphere of legitimate state power; and hisstate.
aim Smith's study of China's economic development
is to present a case for the indispensability of whatfocuses
he on the first of these concerns, his study of the
calls the "wisdom of the state" (WN V.i.a.14)- a phrase organization of Tartar society speaks to the second, and
that he introduces in the context of one of his central his depiction of the clash of the barbarian Tartars with
discussions of the Tartars. the civilized Chinese illuminates the third. Attending
In this sense, his treatment of China and Tartaryto each specific element of his treatment of China and
offers a helpful perspective on a principal debate inTartary thus brings into relief the degree to which his
recent scholarship between "left Smitheans" and "right defense of commercial society is founded in its capacity
Smitheans" (see esp. C. Smith 2013). The crux of this to benefit the least well-off, thereby assisting efforts to
debate is Smith's conception of legitimate state power recover his vision of the "decent society" (Muller 1995)
given his views on the relative effectiveness of nat- from distortions.
ural market orders and human political institutions. Third, Smith's engagement with China and Tartary
Thus, where right Smitheans take Smith to have been reveals the degree of his participation in a key debate
optimistic about the capacities of invisible hands andin Enlightenment political thought. As is now gener-
spontaneous orders to achieve general opulence bene-ally appreciated, Smith shared the interest in com-
fiting all, and pessimistic about our capacities to achieveparative anthropology characteristic of 18th-century
similar benefits through rational political action (e.g., social inquiry, and his sustained engagement with the
Otteson 2010, 277-82), left Smitheans regard him asmain sources on the native North Americans has been
pessimistic about the sufficiency of market orders tocarefully documented (Harkin 2005; Marouby 2007;
provide such benefits, and optimistic about our ca- Whelan 2009). Yet his ethnographic inquiry also ex-
pacity to remedy their deficiencies via political action tended to Asia, attesting to what has been rightly called
(e.g., Sen 2011, 258-62). The debate between the right"the global aspect of Smith's thought" (Muthu 2008,
Smitheans and the left Smitheans comes down to a 187). This in turn led him to participate in the debate
debate over the proper extent of state power, with over
the China central to the French Enlightenment (Whe-
lan 2009, 30-31), itself further evidence of his long-
former arguing for a minimal conception and the latter
for an expanded one. Smith's treatment of Chinastanding
and interest in several French debates. The China
Tartary, however, suggests a third position. Here Smith
debate, which centered on the question of the superior-
conspicuously emphasizes the indispensability of itythe
or inferiority of China to Europe, is frequently char-
"wisdom of the state." At the same time, this wisdom,
acterized as a debate between "Sinophiles" and "Sino-
he insists, should be limited by the recognition phobes"
that (Hung 2003; Jones 2001, 29; Mackerras 2001;
the legitimate aim of state power is to secure thethough
con- cf. Millar 2010, 717-18, 734).2 Smith clearly
ditions that make possible the optimal functioning knewof these debates and sources well.3 Yet for our
the market processes that can most efficiently meet the
needs of the least well-off. In so doing, Smith presents a
nuanced view of state power beyond "right" and "left."
2 Helpful introductions to 18th-century European engagement with
This nuanced view suggests a second reason forChina theinclude Spence (1999, 81-100), Marshall and Williams (1982,
67-97), Jones (2001, 14-36), and Clarke (1997, 37-53).
significance of his treatments of China and Tartary.
3 A much more detailed historical and textual analysis than can be
Smith's interest in how various types of state action
provided here would be necessary to assess the precise nature and
can alternately promote or impede the realization of of Smith's debts to several specific 18th-century sources
full extent

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American Political Science Review Vol. 108, No. 2

of international is
present purposes, what matters tradethat
for amelioration
his ofinquiry
the condi- into
China's economic and political development
tions of the laboring poor, and the costs borne largely
by the
took a path independent poorofwhen government's
those interests are
taken by privileged
either over the
popular well-being. Taken
French Sinophiles or Sinophobes. collectively, Smith's
Although some treat- have
suggested that he "upheld ment of China rather
these issues reveals than
both the moral groundsEurope
of
as a model" of economic his development
defense of commercial society and his conception
(Arrighi 2007,
69; cf. 57-59), most agree ofthat
the indispensable though strictly demarcated
his perspective on Chinarole
of the state(Pitts
is "strikingly nonjudgmental" in helping 2005,
secure the benefits
39; cf. to theJones
least
2001, 67; Pitts 2005, 25-28;
well-offMackerras
that efficient markets 2001,
can bring. 50; Whe-
lan 2009, 166) and that Smith's
he mapsaccount begins with his explanation
uneasily onto for the
China's(Millar
Sinophilia-Sinophobia axis remarkable historical
2010, growth. This he729-31,
720, credits
734). Smith instead turned to
chiefly to twoChina and Tartary-
causes: its fortuitous natural conditions and
and the
particularly to the story of wisdom of its policies.
China's riseSmithtoexplains that
civilized
opulence, its future economic
China's physicalprospects,
geography affords it a and its
remarkably vast tense
internal
relationship with its Tartar market, often noting because
neighbors- the greater efficiency of
it spoke
directly to his concerns water
about carriagewhether
over land carriagecommercial
(e.g., WN I.iii.3^); he so-
claims that the river
ciety's gains could be preserved and system "in the Eastern provinces
whether the fur-
of China. . .afford an inland
ther progress of such a civilization could navigation
be much more ex-
guaranteed
tensive than that
in the absence of the "wisdom of either
theof the Nile or the Ganges,
state," properlyor
conceived and implemented.
perhaps both of them put together." Indeed he cred-
its China's "great
Smith's treatment of China and opulence"
Tartary and the low cost of its
thus sheds
manufactures largely toof
important light on his conception "this state
inland navigation"
power, (WN on
the moral grounds of his defense
I.iii.7; I.xi.g.28). of commercial
And regarding the wisdom of its poli- so-
ciety, and on his participation in that
cies, Smith explains a inkey Enlightenment
China "the executive power
debate. What follows develops
charges itself these
both withclaims
the reparationin four
of the sec-
high roads,
tions. The first section examines his accounts of China's and with the maintenance of the navigable canals"
historical economic growth and present stagnation to (WN V.i.d.17) and that "the sovereigns of China" have
show how he presents it as a useful mirror for Europe, been historically "extremely attentive to the making
reflecting its own approaches to international trade andand maintaining of good roads and navigable canals,
internal improvements. The second section turns to his in order to increase, as much as possible, both the
study of Tartar society and the forms of dependence itquantity and value of every part of the produce of the
encouraged, as well the parallels of this account to his
land, by procuring to every part of it the most exten-
sive market which their own dominions could afford"
treatment of social dependence in feudal Europe. The
third section examines the institutions and values nec-
(WN V.ii.d.5).4 These efforts of the Chinese sovereigns
clearly exemplify the fulfillment of what Smith calls the
essary to preserve a civilized state, as demonstrated by
the conquest of the civilized Chinese by the barbarianthird duty of the sovereign: "erecting and maintaining
Tartars, and the lessons these hold for Europeans. those
The public institutions and those public works" that
conclusion reiterates that these elements of Smith's are "in the highest degree advantageous to a great
society" even though their expense precludes relying
substantive treatment of China and Tartary are united
by a commitment to defining the decent societyon private initiative for their completion- especially
that
public works "facilitating the commerce of the society"
preserves dignity and the role of state power in helping
realize this vision in practice. such as "good roads, bridges, navigable canals, harbors,
etc." (WN V.i.c.1-2; V.i.d.l; see esp. Evensky 2005, 74;
CHINA'S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Millar 2010, 729-30).
DOMESTIC MARKETS AND INTERNATIONAL Yet this seemingly happy story of the sovereign's
TRADE fulfillment of the third duty of government also has
a darker side, which Smith presents in explaining
The most prominent aspect of Smith's engagement why China's government supported the public works
with
projects
China is his treatment of its economic development. On that extended its home market. On his ac-
count,
this front, Smith sees reasons for both celebration and the motive for these projects is not public well-
being but the sovereign's self-interest. Noting that in
concern. China's historical progress toward its current
opulence is deserving of celebration. Yet potentialChina "the revenue of the sovereign arises almost al-
hu-
together from a land-tax or land-rent," Smith explains
manitarian disaster threatens its future if its present
policies are left unchanged. In developing this that "the great interest of the sovereign, therefore, his
point,
Smith presents China as his key empirical evidence revenue,
for is in such countries necessarily and immedi-
ately
three of the central claims of his political economy: theconnected with the cultivation of the land" (WN
V.i.d.17; cf. IV.ix.46; Millar 2010, 730, 733-34). This
utility of state initiatives to expand domestic markets
via publicly funded internal improvements, the utility
4 Smith, it should be noted, is skeptical about the true extent and
on China and Tartary, especially those of Du Halde, de excellence
Guignes,of these improvements (e.g., WN V.i.d.17 and II.v.22; these
Quesnay, and Turgot. I aim to provide such an analysis in a passages
compan-demand assessment in the context of a more comprehensive
review of his sources).
ion piece to the present article.

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 The "Wisdom of the State" May 2014

connection, Smith further

"the liberal reward of insists, both
labor" is the "necessary effect" explain
China supported thatandagricultural
"natural symptom of increasing national development
wealth"
mired by the physiocrats
just as "the scantyandmaintenancewhy
of the laboringits
poor" is administ
"the natural symptom that
was so dedicated to supporting things are at a stand"
public works: (WN "In C
the principal revenue of
I.viii.27). the
This concern sovereign
for "improvement in the circum- consist
stances of of
tenth part of the produce the lowerallranksthe
of the people"
lands ultimatelyin the em
Thus it is precisely the
leads Smith prospect
to his important claimof that "noincreased
society la
can surely
revenue that will serve to be"interest
flourishing and happy, of which thesovereign
the far
improvement and cultivation
greater part of the members of land"
are poor and miserable"and rende
(WN I.viii.36;
"extremely attentive to theFleischacker
making 2004, 49, 131-32,
and 207). It
maintainin
good roads and navigable canals,
is in this context in
that Smith makes his most order
arresting to inc
as much as possible, statement
both on China's
the current economic state:
quantity and val
every part of
the produce of the land, by procurin
every partThe accounts
it the most of of all travelers, inconsistent
extensive market in many other
which
respects, agree in the
own dominions could afford" (WN V.ii.d.4-5). low wages of labor, and in the dif-
ficulty which a laborer finds in bringing up a family in
Smith finds this emergence of a divide between
China. If by digging the ground a whole day he can get
public interest and the government's interest prob
what will purchase a small quantity of rice in the evening,
atic on several levels. First
he is contented.and foremost
The condition it invi
of artificers is, if possible,
tentially oppressive abuses in of
still worse. Instead the methods
waiting indolently in their work- of ta
curement. China's methods of
houses, for the calls taxation
of their were
customers, as in Europe, they of
contemporary interest and were
are continually running about admired
the streets with the by tools th
well known to Smith of (e.g., Rousseau
their respective trades, offering their1992,
service, and as 166-6
it
Hanley 2012, 43-44). Butwere begging employment. The
Smith is poverty of the lower ranks
decidedly cr
of these methods, of people in China
insisting that far surpasses
systems that of the most
of beggarly
centra
taxation in fact oftennations
fail in Europe.
toIn promote
the neighborhood of Canton
the many sover
hundred, it is commonly said, many thousand families
ultimate interest insofar as they invite "the abu
have no habitation on the land, but live constantly in little
depredations of his tax-gatherers" (WN V.ii.d.7
fishing boats upon the rivers and canals. The subsistence
V.i.d.4-6, 18). Yet his principal worry
which they find there on
is so scanty that theythis fron
are eager to
cerned not the possible abuses
fish up ofthrown
the nastiest garbage unscrupulous
overboard from any a
istrators, but the human costs
European ship. Anythat this
carrion, the carcass ofdivide
a dead dog bet
public interests and government interests
or cat, for example, though half seem
putrid and stinking, is
as welcome to them as thewe
portend. To see this concern, most wholesome
need of food to
to shift
the people of other
from his analysis of China's pastcountries.
toMarriage
his is encouraged
analysis in
present and future, andChina, not by the profitableness
indeed from of children,
his but by the
explanati
China's growth to his argument for the several
liberty of destroying them. In all great towns are
policie
every night exposed in the street, or drowned like puppies
likely to preserve and extend these gains.
Smith's assessment of China's current condition is in the water. The performance of this horrid office is even
said to be the avowed business by which some people earn
clear: Although it may be one of the world's most op-
their subsistence. (WN I.viii.24)
ulent countries, "it seems, however, to have been long
stationary" (WN I.viii.24). Smith indeed often invokes
Smith's highly charged account demands to be read in
China as a prime example of an economy "altogetherthe context of his ethical and economic commitments,
stationary," contrasting it both to the "rapidly pro-
rather than in the potentially distorting context of 18th-
gressive" colonies of North America and the "slowcentury European Sinophobia. So far from being a
and gradual" growth of the economies of Europe mere critique of China vis-à-vis Europe, Smith's aim
(WN I.viii.40; I.ix.15). Smith's insistence on China's
is rather to illuminate the plight of China's poor, espe-
stagnation reiterated a claim often made by his con- cially the ways in which certain policies have given rise
temporaries, and other scholars have rightly empha- to certain inhumane effects. Thus he calls particular
sized it (Chen 2004, 193; Jones 2001, 32; Marshall attention
and to the challenges faced by Chinese workers
Williams 1982, 135; Pitts 2005, 40; Whelan 2009, in 30).
their efforts to secure their and their families' sub-
But what have not yet received extended attention sistence. So too Smith's mention of infanticide here-
are the reasons why he regarded China's stagnation as
elsewhere called "so dreadful a violation of humanity"
such grave cause for concern and how the government's (TMS V.2.15; LJA iii.80-81; LJB 127; Paganelli 2013,
misunderstanding of its true interests exacerbated this 334-35)- likewise evokes the extent of the tragedy of
stagnation. the conditions of China's poor, particularly in light of
Smith considered China's stagnation particularly his reminders elsewhere of the disparity in the infant
worrisome because of its effect on the laboring poor. and child mortality rates of the rich and poor (LJA
He introduces this concern with a maxim: "Though iii.133; WN I.viii.38). Most importantly, by describing
the wealth of a country should be very great, yet if the condition to which the laboring poor have been
it has been long stationary, we must not expect to reduced in China in the language of beggary and des-
find the wages of labor very high in it" (WN I.viii.24). peration, Smith calls attention to the human cost of
Throughout this account he invokes wage rates as the specific Chinese economic policies in a manner that
proper standard for measuring growth, insisting that has rightly been described as "indicative of his values"

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 American Political Science Review Vol. 108, No. 2

(Evensky 2005, 74n20); might serve to this

indeed "compensate many defects in civilparal-
description gov-
lels his critique of the ernment"
British (WN I.xi.g.26;
East cf. esp. IV.ix.41).
India China thus
Company,
serves as an example
which itself has been described of how "the wisdom of nature has
as "straightforwardly a
fortunately made(Muthu
moral and humanistic critique" ample provision2008,
for remedying
193, many198-
202; cf. Ahmed 2012, 119-25; of the bad Rothschild
effects of the folly and and Sen
injustice 2006,
of man"
325-26). (WN IV.ix.28)- a judgment Smith delivers explicitly
By juxtaposing China's present stagnation against as a retort to Quesnay (cf. WN IV.ix.27; IV.ix.38) and
its historical development, Smith brings to the fore- implicitly, one suspects, to his views on China.
ground what he takes to be China's tragic irony; Yet China, Smith thinks, needs to change. Increased
namely, the simultaneous coexistence of great wealth foreign trade, he argues, will benefit both the govern-
and widespread poverty. Smith is grateful that condi- ment and the people. Smith insists that when an agri-
tions are not even worse for the poor. Stagnant it may cultural state such as China "oppresses either by high
be, but China "does not seem to go backwards" and the duties or by prohibitions the trade of foreign nations,
"lowest class of laborers" can yet eke out a living (WN it necessarily hurts its own interest" by sinking the
I.viii.25); China has not yet reached the worst stage value of its surplus produce and giving incentives to
of all- that of "want, famine, and mortality," in which withdraw capital from agriculture; thus "agriculture is
labor oversupply reduces wages "to the most miserable rendered less advantageous, and trade and manufac-
and scanty subsistence" and many must "either starve, tures more advantageous than they otherwise would
or be driven to seek a subsistence either by begging, be" (WN IV.ix.25). This has important implications for
or by the perpetuation perhaps of the greatest enor- sovereign self-interest so long as China's revenue de-
mities" (WN I.viii.26). Yet China is close to reaching pends on agricultural production; in this way China
this state, and Smith's awareness of such impresses on exemplifies how states, "preferring agriculture to all
him the need to take action to avoid it, thereby raising other employments, in order to promote it, impose
China, for the sake of its laboring poor, to the "progres- restraints upon manufactures and foreign trade, act
sive state" of "advancing to the further acquisition" of contrary to the very end which they propose, and in-
wealth, because it is precisely here "that the condition directly discourage that very species of industry which
of the laboring poor, of the great body of the people, they mean to promote" (WN IV.ix.49). It is thus in
seems to be the happiest and the most comfortable" the sovereign's interest to encourage freedom of trade
(WN I.viii.43). specifically because it is capable of "raising the value of
Smith makes clear that this move will require a dra- that surplus produce" on which its tax revenue depends
matic policy shift. Given that China had long since "ac- (WN IV.ix.20; IV.ix.24; cf. I.ix.15).
quired that full complement of riches which the nature However, it is not only in the government's interest
of its laws and institutions permits it to acquire" (WN to liberalize China's trade policies. Such a shift is also
I.viii.24; I.ix.15), further growth will require alteration important for the well-being of the people, because
of its "laws and institutions," and particularly aban- foreign trade provides the only possible hope for tran-
donment of its traditional hostility to foreign trade if scending the "narrowness of the home market" that,
it is to secure the well-being of its poor (Dawson 1967, even in so extensive a home market as China, nec-
100; Lockwood 1964, 349; Rasmussen 2008, 103nl9; essarily limits growth and prevents ascent to the pro-
Whelan 2009, 36). Smith often notes that China has gressive state that benefits the poorest (WN IV.i.31).
"never excelled in foreign commerce" or "been emi-Such trade, Smith further suggests, "could scarce fail to
nent for foreign trade," relying instead on "cultivation increase very much the manufactures of China," with
of its own lands, and by its own interior commerce" obvious benefits to laborers and consumers alike (WN
(WN II.V.22; IV.iii.c.ll; cf. I.iii.7). So too he often notes IV.ix.41). Yet at present, "though the rich or the owners
the prejudice of "the modern Chinese" who hold for-of large capitals enjoy a good deal of security, the poor
eign trade "in the utmost contempt, and scarce deignor the owners of small capitals enjoy scarce any, but are
to afford it the decent protection of the laws" (WN liable, under the pretense of justice, to be pillaged and
IV.iii.c.ll; cf. IV.ix.40).5 The consequence of this prej- plundered at any time by the inferior mandarins"-
udice is that foreign commerce is "in China, every way a system that not only restricts capital circulation in
confined within a much narrower circle than that to China but also encourages an "oppression of the poor"
which it would naturally extend itself, if more freedom and "monopoly of the rich, who, by engrossing the
was allowed to it" (WN IV.ix.40).6 Smith notes whole that trade to themselves, will be able to make very
China is fortunate that its natural situation largely large
mit-profits" (WN I.ix.15).
igates the worst potential effects of this hostility. In In this sense, the justice that trade liberalization can
this
sense China exemplifies how "a fertile soil and happy bring to China is not merely the simulacrum of global
climate" and "great abundance and cheapness ofjustice land"that some of Smith's readers have rightly found
in "that equality of courage and force" that free trade
encourages and that Smith thinks "can alone over-
awe the injustice of independent nations into some
5 The three pages from the text cited at WN IV.ix.40 are revealing
(see Bell 1763, vol. 2, pp. 258, 276, 293). They emphasize the Chinese
sort of respect for the rights of one another" (WN
view of foreign trade as a zero-sum game of one-sided benefit- the
same prejudice Smith sought to counter in his own readers.
IV.vii.c.80; cf. Arrighi 2007, 2-3, 8; Lockwood 1964,
6 Although Smith himself notes China was already engaged in some Muthu 2008, 204-07; Pitts 2005, 56-57). More
354-55;
foreign trade; see WN I.xi.a.27; IV.ix.40; and IV.vii.c.100. concretely and immediately, only the liberalization of

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 The "Wisdom of the State" May 2014

trade, coupled with reforms capable

Smith uses the example of
of the Tartars protecti
to illustrate
property rights of
thethepoorest,
important politicalcan
developments that he associ-
alleviate the th
of destitution and starvation
ated with the shift fromand
hunting toend the
shepherding- a shift trag
cle of the "monopolythat of the asrich"
he regarded "of all othersand "oppress
the greatest in the
the poor" (cf. Ahmed 2012,
progression 127).
of society" Smith's
(LJA ii.97). His appreciation treat
of China's economic of development
the "dynamic and creative" nature manifests
of this stage has bo
been noted
fundamental concern for theby several scholars who have called
promotion ofhelpful
human
nity through the spread
attention to of the
the extension markets
of property that defined theand t
gree to which he envisioned
shepherd age (Pocock 2006, state action
280; cf. Haakonssen 1981, as c
of contributing to as well
157-59; as152-55;
Hont 2009, inhibiting
C. Smith 2006, 51-52). this
As en
facilitating internal improvements
they have shown, where in the hunting that extend
age there could
home markets of such indispensable
be neither surplus nor stable property utility
rights, animal to C
poorest, China's sovereigns
husbandry inauguratedstand both
both permanency and as mode
the sur-
the emulation of Europe's
plus of propertystatesmen
(e.g., LJB 150-51), which in and
turn gaveas pr
rise to the
examples of the "wisdom of emergence
the of inequality and
state" in thusaction.
the need Y
sofar as China's centralized
to devise a meansadministrations
of guaranteeing the property rights dev
interests of their ownofthat
possessors conflicted
from the depredations of withthe poor (LJA
the pe
interests and used their
iv.7-9, 22;power
LJB 19-20). Herein to lies inhibit
the origin of govern-access
ternational markets, ment,
they alsowhich
Smith suggests, embody
has as its end thethe
"securitydang
of property"
state action ungoverned by the (WN V.i.b.12; LJA iv.21-24).
responsibility to se
the benefits of markets Thus we arrive
for the at Smith's essential formula: Shep-
poorest.
herding begat property, property begat inequality, in-
equality instability, and instability the need for civil
FREEDOM AND DEPENDENCE: LESSONS government. This theory of government's origins is
FROM TARTARY AND CHINA noteworthy for its emphasis on the inequality of rich
and the poor (WN V.i.b.2; LJA iv.22-23). This is the
Smith's second area of interest regarding China and and distinguishing feature of the shepherd age,
decisive
Tartary concerned their systems of social relations.
and Smith uses the Tartars to illustrate both its positive
Here too his primary concern, as it was in his and
study
negative effects. On the one hand, the emergence
of Chinese economic development, was the condition
of a propertied class that could perpetuate its eminence
of the least well-off. But in this case Smith's focus was across generations established new grounds for author-
not the material condition of the poor, but instead ity; thus he notes that in a shepherd age, "descent gives
the social conditions that determined their dependence one more respect and authority than perhaps in any
on the wealthy and powerful and thus inhibited their other stage of society whatever," specifically invoking
freedom. In shifting focus from material concerns"the to vast respect paid to descent amongst the Tartars
concerns regarding freedom and dependence, he also and Arabs" (LJA iv.43; cf. LJA i.134; LJB 161; WN
expanded his examination of China to include Tartary. III.iv.16; Hont 2009). Yet there is also a decidedly
Smith's key discussions of the Tartars come in the darker side to the emergence of a propertied class.
course of his analyses of the stages of the historical As Smith explains, the same inequality that gave rise
to hereditary authority compels a dependence of the
progress of society. In the Wealth of Nations , this ac-
count is given in the context of his discussion of "thepoor on the rich for their basic subsistence. Thus the age
second duty of the sovereign," namely "that of protect-of the shepherds is that in which "men become in any
considerable degree dependent upon others," because
ing, as far as possible, every member of the society from
the injustice or oppression of every other memberonce of "the distinctions of rich and poor" are instituted,
"those who have not any possessions" can "find no way
it," a duty requiring "very different degrees of expense
in the different periods of society" (WN V.i.b.l). These
of maintaining themselves but by procuring it from the
"different periods of society" concern the progress rich." Furthermore the rich in turn require the "service
from hunting to shepherding to farming to trading so- and dependence" of the poor, and thus in time "every
cieties that Smith, as did many 18th-century theorists,wealthy man comes to have a considerable number of
employed to account for the historical progress of civ-the poorer sort depending and attending upon him."
ilization (see, e.g., Meek 1976; C. Smith 2006, 48-54).Smith thus concludes of the shepherd age that "in this
period of society the inequality of fortune makes a
For our purposes, the significance of this stadial theory
greater odds in the power and influence of the rich
concerns Smith's choice of data to illustrate his theory.
Smith often returns to native North Americans as ex- over the poor than in any other" (LJA iv.7-9, 11-12) -
for where luxury makes possible means of wealth ex-
amples of hunters, and his fourth stage is exemplified by
penditure that redistribute wealth to workers, in the
the civilized nations of Europe. Less well appreciated
age of shepherds, the rich "have no possible means of
is that Smith's key example of the agricultural stage
is China and that he regards Tartary as one of the spending their property, having no domestic luxury, but
"two great nations" exemplifying the pastoral stage by giving it in presents to the poor, and by this means
(the other being Arabia) (LJA iv.36; i.28-29, 33-34;they attain such influence over them as to make them
cf. Marshall and Williams 1982, 137, 147; Pocock 2001,
in a manner their slaves" (LJB 20-21; cf. WN V.i.b.10-
324; 2005, 388; 2006, 281). 11). Smith uses the Tartars as a chief example of this

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 American Political Science Review Vol. 108, No. 2

pendence characteristic of
phenomenon. Thus in illustrating the shepherd
this Tartars and
"considerable
the relative
inequality of fortune" in theindependence
shepherding of social conditions in China Smith
age,
notes that parallels his comparison of the social conditions of feu-
dal Europe to those of modern commercial society.
a Tartar chief, the increase of whose herds and flocks is Smith's analysis of the breakdown of feudal depen-
sufficient to maintain a thousand men, cannot well employ dence has been rightly called "the backbone of his his-
that increase in any other way than in maintaining a thou- tory of modern Europe" (Hont 2009, 153, 165-66, 168;
sand men. The rude state of his society does not afford cf. Hanley 2009, 19-24); Smith himself famously insists
him any manufactured produce, any trinkets or baubles ofin this context that "by far the most important" effect
any kind, for which he can exchange that part of his rude
of commerce is its capacity to establish the "liberty and
produce which is over and above his own consumption.
The thousand men whom he thus maintains, depending
security of individuals" by eradicating the "servile de-
entirely upon him for their subsistence, must both obey pendency" of the poor on the rich (WN III.iv.4). Yet the
his orders in war, and submit to his jurisdiction in peace. details of Smith's account of this transition closely track
He is necessarily both their general and their judge, andthose of his account of the Tartar barbarians. Some
his chieftainship is the necessary effect of the superiority instances of this tracking have been noted (see esp. the
of his fortune. (WN V.i.b.7; cf. LJA iv.45-46) editors' notes at WN V.i.b.7); especially noteworthy are
the parallels between the feudal lords and those Tartar
Thus Tartar social organization is synonymous with de- chiefs who both trade away their authority for "trinkets
pendence. Legal bribery provides some evidence of this and baubles" (WN III.iv.5; III.iv.10-11; III.iv.15; V.iii.l-
(e.g., LJA iv.16, 32-33; LJB 307), but more important is 3; LJA iv.8-9; LJB 36) and the parallels between the
the fact that the rude conditions of Tartar society afford notorious love of "diamond buckles" of the feudal lord
only one avenue for the expenditure of surplus wealth, that leads him to barter away his authority and of the
namely direct distribution, which renders the impover- Chinese who seek the "great objects of the competition
ished recipients of such charity "entirely dependent" of the rich" (WN I.xi.g.28; III.iv.10). These parallels
on the wealthy for their subsistence. are noteworthy for several reasons, not least because
Yet if the social organization of the pastoral Tar- the fact that the landed agricultural states of feudal
tars represents to Smith a pernicious dependence, he Europe exhibited precisely the same dependence that
hardly regards the East as a simple scene of unmiti-defined the nomadic barbarian Tartar shepherds attests
gated dependence. For in China itself Smith discoveredto Smith's recognition that certain social ills transcend
a remedy for the dependence he diagnosed in Tartary.social stages; thus the progress of society is not strictly
Smith hardly thought China free of all dependence, linear in any simple sense. But perhaps more impor-
to be sure; his discussions of polygamy in particulartantly, given that Smith's interest in the Tartars dates at
describe the condition of women in China as one of least to the early 1760s (as evident in early fragments of
"tyranny" and "abject subjection" (LJA iii.28-34, 47-see, e.g., FA 3; FB 3; ED 34), the many parallels
WN;
between his account of the Tartars and those of feu-
48). 7 Yet China enjoys two advantages over the Tartars.
As a landed society- specifically as one of the "rice
dal Europe suggest that his early engagement with the
countries" rather than "corn countries"- China enjoys
Tartars may well have decisively shaped his account of
an "abundance of food," because rice can be harvested
the transition from feudalism to commercial society in
multiple times in a year and each harvest eclipses a
Western Europe, itself a foundational element of his
defense
typical grain harvest. This bounty not only furnishes the of commercial society more generally.
poor necessities at affordable prices but also "the rich,
The second significance of Smith's account of Tartar
having a greater super-abundance of food to dispose dependence concerns its implication for his conception
of beyond what they themselves can consume,"of state action. Smith's account of the Tartars, when
are
capable of "purchasing a much greater quantity of setthe
next to the account of the demise of feudalism in
labor of other people" (WN I.xi.g.28). Smith makes WN this
III, helps clarify the specific type of state action
claim in the context of his discussion of the advantages
that will best serve to minimize the dependence of the
least
of European-Chinese trade in precious metals, but itswell-off. On the one hand, Smith clearly recog-
force lies in its invitation to rethink the relationship ofan indispensable role for the state in guaranteeing
nizes
the rich and the poor. In particular, against the famil-
property rights; indeed, the crux of his account of the
iar Enlightenment critique of "Oriental luxury," SmithTartars is the need for government to provide security
seeks here to show the practical benefits of Chinese for property in ages of inequality. But herein lies the
luxury insofar as it stimulates employment and key leads
claim in his nuanced account. On its face, a gov-
the rich unwittingly to redistribute their wealthernment and primarily instituted to protect the property
authority. of the rich from the depredations of the poor may
These accounts of Tartar dependence and Chinese seem only to reify and indeed exacerbate inequality
luxury are noteworthy for two reasons. The first con- and dependence- an inequality and dependence that
cerns the degree to which Smith's accounts of the de- might themselves seem to require further political ac-
tion for their amelioration. But Smith's own approach
is quite different. As his accounts of feudal Europe
7 Smith interestingly regarded Chinese polygamy as imposed by Tar-
and barbarian Tartary aim to show, the most efficient
tar conquerors (LJA iii.40-41), a claim that reinforces his contention
that the modern Chinese owe their "miserable condition" at least in remedy for the dependence of the poor on the rich lies
part to the Tartar conquest (LJA iv. 108-09). specifically in the opulence and luxury that promote

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 The "Wisdom of the State" May 2014

redistribution of material resources

Smith's evidence through
for each of these claims is Tartary. expan
labor markets. The role of that
For evidence government
when barbarians "are vanquished and the "w
dom of the state," in this sense,
they will lose aretheindispensable,
their all" he invokes example of a
are limited to securing what
"clan of Tartars"has been
(LJA iv.39; described
cf. WN V.i.a.4), emphasiz- as "th
effective operation of ing the wider
that all their men are warriors market"
and that "among the (G Smit
2006, 67; see also 64-66).
Tartars,Smith's
even the women haveargument
been frequently known is that
ultimate remedy for the to engage in battle" (WN V.i.a.3). To show of
dependence that thethe poor
the rich lies not in further stateof action,
ordinary occupations the shepherd preparebut him forrather in
natural progress of opulence
war, Smith describes that government's
"the ordinary life, the ordinary ini
exercises of makes
security of property rights a Tartar or Arab"possible-
(WN V.i.a.4). To illus- a view th
itself provides a helpfultrate
alternative to
the superior mobilization of the the
shepherds, convention
Smith
positions in the left-right
describesdebate.
how "the Tartars live in a sort of wagons"
and "have all their property in what is properly to be
called moveables" (LJA iv.47-48; cf. LJA iv.77, LJB
TARTAR VIRTUE AND CHINESE 30, 335; WN V.i.a.3). In so doing he not only gives
CORRUPTION: CIVILIZATION AND ITS empirical evidence of the formidable military power of
EXISTENTIAL THREATS shepherds but also calls repeated attention to the role
played by the Tartars in world history as a consequence
Smith's third area of interest regarding theofhistory this power (LJA iv.40, 51-55, 60; WN V.i.a.5; TMS
and conditions of the east and their lessons for the VI.iii.30).
west concerns the existential threats to which advanced Yet it is not only the strength of the Tartars that
renders them so formidable. Equally important as the
civilization was particularly susceptible. In explicating
these threats, Smith shifts his focus in a slight but strength that distinguishes shepherds is the weakness
significant way. Whereas his treatments of both thethat characterizes opulent civilizations and renders
Chinese and the Tartars profiled earlier focus on their them susceptible. In diagnosing this weakness, Smith
domestic institutions, here Smith's explicit focus lies calls attention to two forms of weakness: one insti-
on the interrelations- indeed, the historically hostiletutional and one moral. Regarding institutional weak-
relations- between the Chinese and the Tartars. In the ness, he explains that, just as the ordinary employments
story of these relations, Smith finds a crucial set of of shepherds prepare them for war, those of citizens of
lessons concerning both the nature of the threats that commercial societies disincline them to military ser-
barbarism poses to opulent societies and the normative vice. "Every hour a smith or a weaver is absent from
remedies that such societies would do well to adopt to his loom or his anvil his work is at a stop," he explains,
mitigate these threats. In this sense, Smith's account ofbecause one can hardly devote "a single hour" to mili-
these remedies emerges as an account of the specific tary exercises "without some loss, and his attention to
type of state action that commercial societies require his own interest naturally leads him to neglect them
to mitigate the negative externalities consequent to thealtogether" (LJA iv.79; WN V.i.a.15; cf. V.i.a.9). Such
otherwise welcome production of opulence and luxury citizens come to see service in the military not merely as
afforded by commercial progress. an "inconvenience" but also as a "great hardship," with
Smith's account begins with his insistence that bar- the result that it is left to "the lowest ranks" and "the
barian shepherds pose a greater threat to civilized and dregs of the people" (LJA iv.88; cf. LJA iv.83-84, 93-
opulent societies than do savage hunters. "A nation94, 99; LJB 40; see esp. Montes 2009, 325). Further, in
of hunters can never be formidable to the civilized advanced societies it is not only not in the individual's
nations in their neighborhood," he argues, because interest to go to war but it is also not iti the state's
"the precarious subsistence which the chase affords" interest. Smith notes that in all nations that depend on
taxation of manufactures for revenue, if manufacturers
prevents them from forming large groups (WN V.i.a.5;
cf. LJA iv.39). Where groups of hunters are limited
weretoto be sent to the battlefield, "the public revenues
"two or three hundred," groups of shepherds "some- would have been greatly diminished"- and hence it is
times amount to two or three hundred thousand" "no (WN longer the interest of the government to press its
subjects to go to war" (LJA iv.99-100), because such
V.i.a.5; LJA iv.38-39; LJB 28). Yet it is not only their
ability to sustain large groups that makes shepherdsservice would be "both difficult and prejudicial to the
state" (LJA iv.103).
formidable. First, their ordinary occupations and "com-
mon pastimes" are all "images of war" and prepare The "progress of manufactures" thus causes a weak-
them well to take the field (WN V.i.a.4). Second, their
ening of military strength in an institutional sense (WN
nomadic life renders them mobile, and thus their entire
V.i.a.8; cf. LJA iv.76-77, 85; LJB 37, 47). Yet Smith also
nation, "being accustomed to a wandering life, even in
identifies a moral cause of this diminution of strength.
time of peace, easily takes the field in time of war" ( In
WN a key passage he describes "another bad effect
V.i.a.3; cf. LJA iv.77; LJB 29, 335). Third, they have ofan commerce," namely "that it sinks the courage of
incentive to win their wars because they carry the whole
mankind, and tends to extinguish martial spirit." Smith
of their nation and all of their property into battle,traces
and this effect to the division of labor; just as "in all
thus "if they are vanquished, all is lost"- herds commercial
and countries the division of labor is infinite,
and everyone's thoughts are employed about one par-
flocks, women and children alike (WN V.i.a.3-4; cf. LJA
iv.39-40). ticular thing," so too "war comes to be a trade also" in

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 American Political Science Review Vol. 108, No. 2

which a few specialize, withsecurity

the ofresult that
every society "among
must always the
depend, more or
bulk of the people military courage
less, upon diminishes"
the martial spirit of the great body of andthe
luxury leads them to "grow effeminate
people," yet "in the present and dastardly"
times" this "martial spirit
(LJB 331). This stands in alone" sharp contrast
if "unsupported to Britons
by a well-disciplined standing
of only two centuries earlier, army, would animated
not, perhaps, be by "spirit
sufficient and
for the defense
vigor," "brave and warlike" andwith
security of minds
any society" "not enervated
(WN V.i.f.59). Smith fa-
by cultivating arts and commerce" mously identifies "the (LJB
first duty 332). Thusas
of the sovereign"
Smith reaches his notorious conclusion
"protecting the society from regarding the
the violence and invasion
"disadvantages of a commercial spirit":
of other independent "Heroic
societies" (WN V.i.a.l; cf. spirit
V.i.a.42;
is almost utterly extinguished" IV.ix.51),(LJB
and his conviction
333), the on this citizen
front led him, isas
rendered "incapable of defending is well known, his country
to advocate for the public in war"
support of
(WN V.i.f.50), and "military exercises"
a standing army (cf. WN V.i.a. are16-18).neglected
On this basis, it
as "the great body of thewould people
seem that hisbecomes altogether
call for the necessity of a publicly
unwarlike" (WN V.i.a.15). funded standing army was not merely an intervention
These claims are now relatively in the debate over the relative merits What
familiar. of armies versusde-
mands particular notice in that
militias in whichinhedeveloping
had earlier participated them
from the
Smith again cites Tartary other and sideChina
(see esp. Montesas his chief
2009, 326-28) em-
but was also
pirical evidence: the fruit of his reflection on Chinese civilization and
the existential threat posed to it by the Tartars. Indeed,
It is for the same reason too his keythatpiece ofanevidence
army for the ofsuperiority
4 or of a stand-
500
Europeans have often penetrated ing army to a militia
into the is "the frequent conquests
Mogul's coun- of all
try, and that the most numerous the civilized
armies countries
of the in Asia by the Tartars."
Chinese haveSuch
always been overthrown by the conquests, especially
Tartars. In the Manchu countries,
these Tartar conquest of
the division of labor and luxury China,have arrived
"sufficiently at a [s]
demonstrate very high
the natural supe-
pitch, they have no standing army,
riority" and the
of barbarian armiespeople
to civilizedare alland
militias
intent on the arts of peace. (LJB thus the332) need for civilized states to adopt standing
armies, the only means by which "the civilization of
The coexistence of barbarian any countryshepherds
can be perpetuated, andor even opulent
preserved for
civilizations as exemplified anyby considerable
the Tartar time" (WN V.i.a.39;
conquest cf. V.i.a.36). ofIn
China- elsewhere described short, by Smith
the Tartars, in his
distinguished gloss
by military on
strength,
Voltaire as a clash between "Chinese virtue" and "Tar- warlike natures, and great mobility, represent an im-
tar barbarity" (LER 17; cf. TMS VI.ii.2.1)- reveals a
mense threat- indeed one that requires a certain type
tragic irony: namely, that the very opulence that marksof state action to mitigate. In particular, the potential
the progress of commercial nations also "provokes the force of the enemy is too great to wait for it to arrive at
invasion of all their neighbors," and thus "a wealthy the gates, and on such grounds Smith insists on the need
for government to take the primary role in advance
nation, is of all nations the most likely to be attacked;
and unless the state takes some new measures for the planning:
public defense, the natural habits of the people render
them altogether incapable of defending themselves"Into other arts the division of labor is naturally introduced
(WN V.i.a.15; cf. LJB 32). This situation is worrisomeby the prudence of individuals, who find that they promote
partly because it impedes progress; thus "nothing cantheir private interest better by confining themselves to a
be more an obstacle to the progress of opulence" thanparticular trade, than by exercising a great number. But it
the fact that "among the Tartars and Arabs, great bandsis the wisdom of a state only which can render the trade of
of barbarians are always roaming from one place toa soldier a particular trade separate and distinct from all
another in quest of plunder" (LJB 288). Yet even moreothers. A private citizen who, in time of profound peace,
worrisome to Smith is the possibility of the existential and without any particular encouragement from the pub-
annihilation of the civilized state as a direct conse- lic, should spend the greater part of his time in military ex-
ercises, might, no doubt, both improve himself very much
quence. Commerce, he insists, will "necessarily undo in them, and amuse himself very well; but he certainly
the strength and cause the power to vanish of such would not promote his own interest. It is the wisdom of
a state till it be swallowed up by some neighboring the state only which can render it for his interest to give
state" (LJA iv.81), because it is the very improvement
up the greater part of his time to this peculiar occupation:
in the arts that causes a state's strength to be "greatly
and states have not always had this wisdom, even when
circumstances have become such, that the preservation
diminished" to the point that "it falls a sacrifice to some
of its neighbors" (LJA iv.91; cf. LJB 43). of their existence required that they should have it. (WN
Smith thus thinks that his Western readers would do V.i. a. 14)

well to attend to the story of the conquest of civilized

China by barbarian Tartary for two reasons. First, the The story of the depredations of the Tartars thus served
story of the unpreparedness of civilized China to con- to convey the lesson that the natural division of labor
front and resist the invasions of their neighbors helps directed by private self-interest needs guidance by the
clarify the unique responsibilities of the modern state "wisdom of the state" in matters of national defense if
in helping secure the conditions of stability. Smith quitecommercial societies hope to optimize the chances of
forthrightly insists in the Wealth of Nations that "the "the preservation of their existence."

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 The "Wisdom of the State" May 2014

But for Smith this concern with existential threat consequence would be that from the highest degree of op-
preparedness was hardly a matter of pure theory; henceulence the whole country would be reduced to the lowest
the second reason for his drawing our attention to thepitch of misery and brought back to its ancient state. (LJB
story of the Manchu conquest. China's fate was not267-68)
a
one-off event somehow distant from the dangers faced
by contemporary Europe; on the contrary, SmithThus sawthe possibility of the existential annihilation of
Britain
evidence of this threat in both the recent past and pos- at the hands of the Tartars was sufficiently
sible future of his own nation. Thus he offers several present to Smith to have led him to imagine its pos-
examples to illustrate his claim that "when a civilizedsibility and to ask his students to imagine it as well.
nation depends for its defense upon a militia, it isElsewhere
at he suggests that this possibility is not only on
all times exposed to be conquered by any barbarous British minds; hence, his story of the returned ambas-
nation which happens to be in its neighborhood," andsador who reported "that the Tartars used frequently
to ask him, if there was plenty of sheep and oxen in the
that "it is only by means of a standing army, therefore,
kingdom of France?" because "they wanted to know if
that the civilization of any country can be perpetuated"
(WN V.i.a.39). In Scotland's recent past, Smith clearly country was rich enough to be worth the conquer-
the
saw similarities between the Manchu invasion that ing" (WN IV.i.2). Perhaps most significantly, reminding
sacked Peking in 1644 and the Highland invasion his that
audience that "the present Sultans, Grand Seignors,
Mogulls,
reached Edinburgh in 1745 (see esp. Millar 2010, 725; and Emperors of China are all of Tartarian
Whelan 2009, 10); hence in making his claim that the he observes that
descent,"
vulnerability of rich civilizations is shown by "universal
experience," he cites alongside the Tartar conquest the of
caliphs who succeeded Mahomet had indeed some bet-
ter regulations
China the events of "the year 1745" in which "four or with regard to the administration of justice;
but they, falling on that account into peaceable industry
5 thousand naked unarmed Highlanders took posses-
and commerce, cared not to go out to war themselves and
sion of the improved parts of this country without any
took the expedient ordinary in such cases: they called in
opposition from the unwarlike inhabitants" (LJBthe 331;
Turkamans to protect their country. This Tartar nation
cf. WN V.i.a.26; TMS VI.ii.1.12). Far from minimizing
in the same manner, and others of their employment, in a
the significance of this threat, Smith makes clear that
short time overthrew the empire of the caliphs and made
it was only the standing army that stood betweenway
thefor the Ottoman family into Europe. (LJA iv. 108-09;
Highland invaders and the fall of the Crown: "They
cf. LJA iii.45; LJA iv.40, 52; LJB 46)
penetrated into England and alarmed the whole nation,
and had they not been opposed by a standing army Smith's assessment serves as a précis of both his theory
of commercial corruption and his historical account
they would have seized the throne with little difficultý"
(LJB 332). So too he notes that the British armyofplays
civilized Europe's engagement with the East. On
a similarly indispensable role farther afield; even as
the former front, it reiterates his long-standing con-
he disparages the relative threat posed by the native
cern, noted earlier, with the ways in which industry
North Americans (WN V.i.a.5), Smith is aware of andwhat
commerce enervate military might and can lead to
might well happen were the colonies to be "deserted
potentially fatal reliance on barbarian mercenaries (see
by Britain and left to defend themselves againstLJAthe
iv.100-03). On the latter front, his narrative of the
savages" (LJA iv.102). overthrow of the caliphate stands not only as another
Beyond the Highlanders and the native North Amer-
Tartar-driven upheaval but also marks the moment that
icans, Smith also presents the Tartars themselves as a
the Tartars, via the Ottoman Empire, were brought to
threat to civilized Britain and Europe more generally.
Europe's door (cf. Wheatcroft 2009, 47-54).
In part he appeals to history to argue this point, remind-
Such claims attest to Smith's interest in Tartary and
ing his students and readers that not only did China fall
his concerns regarding the threat they might pose to
to the Tartars but so too did Rome; his account of Europe.
"the Yet care should be taken not to overstate his
fall of the western empire" is thus presented not only regarding the Tartars or indeed any specific
concerns
to support his claim with regard to "the irresistibleextant group. This is in part for practical reasons; Smith
superiority which the militia of a barbarous, has overinsists that the present superiority of European
himself
that of a civilized nation" (WN V.i.a.36) but also totechnology significantly minimizes the barbar-
military
argue that the barbarians who sacked Rome were of in the short term, given the conditions of
ian threat
Tartar descent (WN V.i.a.35; cf. I.iii.8; V.i.a.5). Yet the war" (WN V.i.a.44; cf. V.i.a.14, V.i.a.25)- a
"modern
Tartar threat to Europe is for Smith hardly a claim merenow standard in accounts of the relations of
matter of historical interest only. Students at one the ofOttoman Empire to Europe in the 18th century
his jurisprudence lectures were invited to participate
(e.g. Quataert 2005, 37-38). More importantly, Smith's
in the following striking thought experiment: intention was less to identify possible future threats
than to diagnose specific present ills. Rather than prog-
Let us suppose that this island was invaded by a numerous
nosticate about an uncertain future, Smith sought to
band of Tartars, a people who are still in the state ofgain
shep-clarity about the current problem of commercial
corruption,
herds, a people who lead a roving life and have little or as well as the specific institutional actions
that civilized states, in their wisdom, ought to take to
no idea of industry. Here they would find all commodities
for the taking, they would put on fine clothes, eat, guard
drink, against any and all future threats, foreseen and
tear and wear every thing they laid their hands upon.unforeseeable.
The It is for this reason that Smith frames

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American Political Science Review Vol. 108, No. 2

his account not as a call the

forrealization of human dignity in
preparation practice.
for war Smith'swith
the Tartars but as a theoretical analysis
treatment of the China and Tartaryof the ways
cases clarifies his
in which "improvementview in that state action
arts and is atcultivation
once necessary for andunfit
also
the people from going to properly
war" limited to securing
and the gains of commercial
diminish strength
progress
until "it falls a sacrifice to some and to mitigating
of itsits negative externalities.(LJA
neighbors" In
iv.91; cf. LJA iv.85, 93;so LJB 37)-
doing, Smith's "unless,"
treatment of course,
of China and Tartary both
"the state takes some new cuts a measure
useful new path between
for "right"
the and "left" on de-
public
fense" (WN V.i.a.15). China's the central and contested
fall issue the
to of the nature and ex-
Tartars thus
represents not merely the fate state
tent of legitimate of action
a distant land
and also reaffirms a core but
also the possible fate of civilized
point on which both right European
and left agree. Left states
Smitheans if
they fail to take preemptive action.
and right Smitheans both agree Smith's claim is
that Smith's economic
that the existential threat and that
political science resisted idealizations
barbarism poses and focused
to civ-
ilization, in conjunctiononwith "actual realizations" and "comparisons rather
the corruption than
endemic
to commercial society, demands on transcendence" (Senthat 2009, xvi-xvii)
states and that Smith
anticipate
and plan for the possibility inclined toward
that empiricism
their and harbored
gains a "tempera-
could be
erased if they fail to adopt mental distaste
certain for utopianism" (C. Smith 2013,
practical 796)- a
measures,
specifically maintenance point
of confirmed
a standing
by Smith's deployment
army of the
at real-
public
expense- lest "that fated world cases of China and Tartary.
dissolution thatSmith'sawaits treatment every
state and constitution whatever" come sooner rather of China and Tartary not only affirms this point of
than later (LJB 46). agreement between right and left but also suggests
a way to resolve their central point of disagreement,
namely the scope of legitimate state power. Smith's
CONCLUSION: LESSONS FROM CHINA AND own third way privileges the markets admired by the
TARTARY right to effect the poverty relief sought by the left, and
it both mandates and limits the use of state power in
This analysis has sought to demonstrate that Smith's furthering this specific end in this specific manner- a
engagement with both China and Tartary was quite commitment that his treatment of China and Tartary
extensive if underappreciated today. Its significancehelpfully
is illuminates. Delineating an indispensable but
strictly limited role for the "wisdom of the state" in
threefold. First, it attests to his participation in and
indeed his unique contribution to the 18th-century securing the gains brought by the progress of commer-
French debates on China. A recent scholar has com- cial society- specifically through encouraging internal
pared these debates to a "Rorschach test" in which improvements, improving access to international mar-
all sides "could see what they wanted to see" (Harveykets, and securing the safety of the citizenry- Smith
2012, 41-42). Yet Smith's own approach was quite sets
dif-forth a conception of state action that productively
ferent. Far from either celebrating or castigating moves
the beyond conventional distinctions of right and
East by judging it against an idealized model, his left
nu-and ensures that market mechanisms work with
anced engagement with the data these cases afforded maximum efficiency to promote and preserve dignity.
testifies to his awareness of the difference between
"natural and actual paths of economic development"
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