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There were some people who contributed to the Enlightenment about as much as Sir Isaac Newton, and they were born in Scotland. One of them was Adam Smith. He was born in the town Kirkcaldy at the eastern coast. When he was fourteen years old he entered the University of Glasgow, and in 1740 he went to Oxford. In 1759 Smith published “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”. His greatest work was published in 1776, called “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, usually shortened to “The Wealth of Nations”. By this book he became the father of modern economics. He proposed that a nation’s wealth should not be measured by the amount of gold and silver it has in store but instead by the total of its production and commerce, today known as gross domestic product. Furthermore he explored theories about the division of labour, through which specialisation would lead to a qualitative increase in productivity.

Another person who was born during the Age of Enlightenment was James Watt. He was born in 1736 in the poor Scottish seaport town of Greenock in the west of Glasgow, a town well-known for shipbuilding. When he was a child he got a tool kit from his father, and his hobby became deconstructing and reassembling his toys. A family anecdote has it that he is chided for his fascination with a steaming kettle. After he returned to Glasgow from London he couldn’t find an apprenticeship because of his specialty. It wasn’t the last time that Watt had to wait for the world to catch up with him. But then university professors employed him and he set up an own business. During that time he was befriended by Adam Smith. In 1758 he got to know John Robinson who introduced him to the science of steam. In 1763 the university asked him to repair one of their Newcomen steam engines. Watt realised it was horrendously inefficient. At that time it was only used in mines to pump out water.