Thread by @adamsmithworks

Yesterday #AdamSmith outlined the first duty of the sovereign—protecting the nation from attack. The second duty of the sovereign is protecting individuals from each other aka administering justice. (V.i.b.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Just as defense gets more complicated and expensive as societies develop, so does the process of administering justice. (V.i.b.1) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

In nations of hunters, where there is little private property, there’s little need for complex justice. We may do violence to each other out of anger or other passions, but we really don’t give in to that very often. (V.i.b.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith isn’t giving us a story that’s idyllic OR one that’s a war of all against all. There’s less stuff to fight over in nations with less property, so there’s less fighting. (V.i.b.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Add more stuff and you get more conflict and more temptation to exercise our greed and laziness by taking stuff we didn’t work for. (V.i.b.2) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Because we all want to keep all the stuff we have, but we are all outnumbered by people who want to take the stuff we have, we need a justice system.

And introducing a justice system means that you’re introducing hierarchy. (V.i.b.3) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(Smith says hierarchy or subordination gradually grows up over time as a natural adjunct to the growth of property. And okay, public choice hadn’t been invented yet, but Smith knew that power is really good at preserving itself.) (V.i.b.3) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We seem naturally attracted to certain kinds of qualities in leaders: personal qualities of body, mind, and spirit; age and experience; wealth; family background. (V.i.b.4–8) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Personal qualities are a little too subjective to make them a convenient thing on which to base a hierarchy.
(Besides, the bathing suit competition just gets awkward.)
Age is less subjective.
(But equally awkward in a bikini) (V.i.b.5–6) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Wealth is the greatest influence on hierarchy in less developed countries because the differences in fortune are so great and there’s not a lot to buy with your wealth other than the loyalty of others. (V.i.b.7) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Once there’s stuff to shop for, we’d rather go to Target than maintain bands of loyal retainers.
Heck, even Canadian Tire. (V.i.b.7) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

This doesn’t mean wealth has no influence in developed societies. (#CaptainObvious: It does.)
In fact, the excessive influence of wealth is the “constant complaint” in any society with any inequality. (V.i.b.7) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But, Smith says, this is the price we pay for not having universal poverty. Once anyone gets wealth, inequality develops and some people have undue influence.
(That’s why it’s important to enable everyone to get better off.) (V.i.b.7) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Superiority of birth is a kind of hierarchy that arises only in developed nations because it comes from inequality of fortune over generations.
All families are equally ancient, but not all families are equally anciently wealthy. (V.i.b.8) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We just don’t respect new authority like we do established authority.
(We ❤ the word “upstart.”
Does anyone else think Smith is thinking of #Shakespeare being called an “upstart crow” by a jealous fellow playwright?
Just us?) (V.i.b.8)
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

It’s not clear whether Smith is praising a hierarchy of birth or just describing it.
He’s pretty clear that illustrious families are not illustrious entirely because of the “inheritance of wisdom and virtue”, though. (V.i.b.9) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

This means that, really, judicial authority is gained by some combination of birth and fortune.

#TLDR: You don’t get judicial authority until you have property that people want to protect. (V.i.b.12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

So public choice wasn’t a thing yet, but Smith isn’t an idiot: “The rich, in particular, are necessarily interested to support that order of things which can alone secure them in the possession of their advantages.” (V.i.b.12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

That means that civil government is “instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor” or the defense of those who have property against those who have none. (V.i.b.12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Beyond that, instead of costing the sovereign anything, administering justice was—for a long time—a source of revenue!
People who want justice are always willing to pay for it. (Especially if they get to define it, too.) (V.i.b.13) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And beyond even that, the administration of justice (can we put "justice" in scare quotes yet?) become subservient to the collection of revenue.
That produced gross abuses. (So if you’re getting mad, Smith is right there with you.) (V.i.b.14) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Wealthy people who applied for "justice" “with a large present in hand” got something more than justice, while those with less to offer as a “present” got less than justice. Delays were engineered in order to get more “presents.” (V.i.b14) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Do you want a Magna Carta? Because this is how you get a Magna Carta. (V.i.b.14) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And who the heck was going to call the sovereign to account?
Smith might have quoted Lady #Macbeth, “What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?” #WeWarnedYouWeHaveALitDegree (V.i.b.15–16) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Once you move from tribute to taxes, and once judges start to get salaries, you can start to talk about administering justice for free, and you can remove some abuses. (V.i.b.17) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But let’s not kid ourselves, justice isn’t free anywhere. You have to pay lawyers or they won’t perform well, for starters. (V.i.b.18) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Judges don’t have to be paid as much because the job gets them so much respect. (V.i.b.19) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith has a plan for rolling all court costs into a single fee, paid in advance, distributed to judges after the case is decided.
This is based on how they were doing it in France, so here’s one time when Smith praises France. Take note! (V.i.b.20)
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And now...a brief history of the courts of England:

There were a lot of them. (V.i.b.21) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We love how Smith suggests that a stamp duty might help defray court costs and then instantly starts to troubleshoot it because he knows how people do. Temptation inspires corruption, folks. (V.i.b.22) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But no matter how we fund the administration of justice, the sovereign shouldn’t fund it.
There should be another way—rents, interest from a fund, something. (V.i.b.23) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Administration of justice must be separate from the sovereign. Otherwise the sovereign won’t have time to do anything else and we sacrifice justice to political expediency. [We, the SmithTweeters, would have put the second part first.] (V.i.b.24–25) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We cannot and must not sacrifice justice to political expediency and political interests because the liberty of every individual depends on impartially administered justice.
(Man, do we love this part.) (V.i.b.25) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

A separate and independent judiciary is a basic requirement for the individual to feel secure in the possession of every right which belongs to him.
#AdamSmith out.
SmithTweeters out.
How can we follow that? Find out tomorrow! (V.i.b.25) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets