Adam Smith, the Don Quijote of economics?

To my North American readers, happy 4th of July! In my previous post, we saw Adam Smith’s scathing critique of farm subsidies. (This critique appears in Additions #8 and #9 (pp. 10-12) of his 1784 pamphlet.) As it happens, the Scottish customs commissioner — recall that Smith had been serving as a royal customs official in Edinburgh since 1778 — picks up right where he left off in Addition #10 (p. 13). Here, Smith makes two further points about subsidies (“bounties”). First off, Smith launches a blistering attack on the “country gentlemen” (i.e. farmers) who have lobbied the government for farm subsidies: “They loaded the public revenue with a very considerable expense; they imposed a very heavy tax upon the whole body of the people; but they did not, in any sensible degree, increase the real value of their own commodity; and by lowering somewhat the real value of silver, they discouraged in some degree, the general industry of the country, and, instead of advancing, retarded more or…