The Third Duke of Buccleuch and Adam Smith

Henry Scott, the third Duke of Buccleuch (1746-1812), presided over the management of one of the largest landed estates in Britain during a time of dramatic agrarian, social, and political change. Tutored and advised by the philosopher Adam Smith, the Duke was also an important patron of the Scottish Enlightenment, lauded by the Edinburgh literati as an exemplar of patriotic nobility and civic virtue. His alliance with Henry Dundas dominated Scottish politics for almost forty years.

Combining the approaches of intellectual, economic, and landscape history, The Third Duke of Buccleuch and Adam Smith examines the life and career of the third Duke, focusing in particular on his relationship with Adam Smith and the improvement of his extensive Scottish estates. By examining the influence of one of the eighteenth century's foremost philosophers of improvement upon the career of one of Scotland's largest landowners, this book explores the various influences—intellectual, economic, moral, and political—which helped shape Scotland's distinctive agricultural revolution.

In its exploration of the cultural as well as the economic roots of improvement and in its assessment of previously unappreciated aspects of Adam Smith's career, The Third Duke of Buccleuch and Adam Smith will appeal to both specialist scholars and general readers interested in the Scottish Enlightenment, estate management, and the culture of improvement in eighteenth-century Scotland.