£625k donation for Adam Smith house renovation

Panmure House in Edinburgh was the final home of Adam Smith. Picture: Ian Georgeson

Panmure House in Edinburgh is to be turned into a centre for economic excellence by Edinburgh Business School which bought the building in 2008.

The project was given a $1 million (£624,715) donation from the Global Philanthropic Trust which supports educational institutes to promote libertarian causes.

The business school said the donation will help ensure work on the conservation of the house can start early next year, with its opening scheduled for autumn 2015.

It aims to create a contemporary centre of learning, debate and enlightenment at the house and celebrate the legacy of moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith who lived from 1723 to 1790.

The project is led by Professor Keith Lumsden, director and founder of the business school, who chairs the fundraising committee of Panmure House Campaign.

“On behalf of the whole campaign team, I am pleased to announce the generous donation the campaign has received from the Global Philanthropic Trust to support our efforts to restore Adam Smith’s final home, Panmure House.

“Adam Smith is often said to be the world’s first economist. He is a vital part of Scotland’s heritage and a beacon of intellectual endeavour. Revitalising his last home as an educational centre will help ensure his pioneering thinking lives on in the minds of future generations.”

The school is the graduate school of business of Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University.

Terry Kibbe, adviser to the Global Philanthropic Trust, said: “It has been 237 years since the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations and his understanding of the mutual benefits of trade and voluntary cooperation are more relevant and more urgently needed than ever before.

“As the world struggles to lift ever more people out of poverty, Smith’s ideas provide a modern roadmap to renewed prosperity.”

BACKGROUND

• Bill Jamieson visits ‘the birthplace of capitalism