[68] That language might be held
indifferently by the mercantilist and the free-trader.

In advocating the abolition of the duty on foreign linen yarns, which
they succeeded in obtaining in 1756, the Glasgow merchants seem
certainly to have had no thought of free trade, or probably anything
else but their own obvious interest as manufacturers, for they never
dreamt of abolishing either the export bounty on home-made linen cloth
or of repealing the law of 1748, which gave their own Glasgow linen
factory a considerable lift, and which forbade the import of foreign
linen, and fined husbands for letting their wives wear it. Still the
discussion of these subjects would open up various points of view, and
it may be remembered that this duty on foreign linen yarns is one
which Smith himself, free-trader though he was, was against
abolishing, not out of any favour for the flax-growers, but for the
protection of the poor women scattered in the cottages of the kingdom
who made their livelihood by spinning yarn.

On the question of paper money we find Mr. Cochrane and Mr.
Glassford--both of whom were bankers as well as merchants--in
communication with Baron Mure and Sir James Steuart, the economist,
soon after Smith left Glasgow. Sir James would almost certainly be a
member of the club, because he resided in the neighbourhood, but as he
was only pardoned a few months before Smith resigned his chair, it is
improbable that the two economists ever met together at the club
meetings. But the questions the two leading merchants were then
discussing with Sir James would, no doubt, have been occasionally
subjects of conversation at the club during the time of Smith's
attendance. What, we find them asking, are the effects of paper money
on prices? on the currency? on the exchanges with other countries?
What was the effect of small notes? what of notes not payable on
demand? They differed on various points. For example, Glassford would
let the banks issue notes for any sums they liked, and had no
objection to the small ten-shilling and five-shilling notes which were
then common. Cochrane would abolish all notes for less than a
pound,[69] and Smith--at least in 1776--would abolish all notes less
than five pounds.[70] But all alike had a firm grasp of the true
nature and operation of money.

Another society of which Smith was a member, and indeed a founder,
was the Literary Society of Glasgow. It was a general debating society
composed ma