"Bankruptcy is perhaps the greatest and most humiliating calamity which can befall an innocent man. The greater part of men, therefore, are sufficiently careful to avoid it. Some, indeed, do not avoid it; as some do not avoid the gallows." Adam Smith. .

             Adam Smith was a Scottish political economist and philosopher. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized at Kirkcaldy on June 5, 1723. His father died six months prior to this date. Adam Smith senior was the comptroller of the customs at Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. Smith grew up in Kirkcaldy with his mother.

             In 1737, Adam Smith became a student at Glasgow. He was studying moral philosophy under Francis Hutcheson. Smith referred to him as "the never-to-be-forgotten." In 1740, Smith entered Balliol College, Oxford. Regarding Smith, William Robert Scott has said, 'the Oxford of his time gave little if any help towards what was to be his lifework.' Smith was not happy with the money that was being spent toward an education that was not stimulating his needs at the time. He left Oxford in 1746 due to the lack of intellectual stimulation, but not before expressing his views. "Smith's hostility to Oxford's educational inefficiency and expensiveness is well brought out in his letters of this period:.

             Adam Smith to William Smith 'at the Duke of Argyle's House in Brutin St. Oxon: August 24, 1740.

             Sir,.

             I yesterday receiv'd your letter with a bill of sixteen pounds enclos'd for which I humbly thank you, but more for the good advice you were pleas'd to give me. I am indeed afraid that my expenses at college must necessarily amount to a much greater sum this year than at any time hereafter, because of the extraordinary and most extravagant fees we are obliged to pay the College and University on our admittance; it will be his own fault if any one should endanger his health at Oxford by excessive study, our only business here being to go to prayers twice a day and to lecture twice a week.