AND THE THEORY OF VALUE: Chapter Six Considered *

Adam Smith enjoys a rather precarious position in the development of economic theory. On the one hand, he is recognized as the "Father " of the discipline (though not without progeni-tors--he's not the original Adam). At the same time, his work contains "dangerous " elements: one interpretation places Smith squarely in the line of descent that leads to Marx. The primary line of argument, however, purges Smith of dangerous thoughts, developing a lineage that runs from Smith to neoclassicism. The major requirement if the prevailing argument is to hold is that a demonstration be erected that proves Smith either never held a labor embodied theory of value, or, at a minimum, merely consigned this general point of view to the "early and rude " level of social development. If this end is not achieved, and if consistency is indeed a virtue, the ongoing attack on Marx must include an attack on the "Father " himself. Paul Douglas has indicated what such consistency must lead to: There are, it seems to me, few more unfair instances in economic thought than the almost complete unanimity with which the Eng-lish-speaking economists of the chair have heaped condemnatio