The Adam Smith Institute is pleased to announce the completion of its project to erect the World's first public monument to Adam Smith – the great Scottish economist, philosopher, and author of The Wealth of Nations.

The monument, which takes the form of a 10-foot bronze statue on a massive stone plinth, will be unveiled today on Edinburgh's Royal Mile – right in the heart of Scotland's capital city, where Adam Smith worked and died. The statue was created by Alexander Stoddart, Scotland's leading monumental sculptor, and will be unveiled by Nobel Laureate Economist Vernon Lomax Smith.

The statue's position – in an ancient marketplace – could hardly be more appropriate. The monument is within view of the recent statue of Smith’s friend David Hume, looking downhill to the Canongate (where Smith is lived and is buried), towards the harbour of Leith (with its connotations of trade and commerce), and over the sea to the county of Fife, where Smith was born.

Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the ASI, said:

This honour is long overdue. As author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith was the pioneer of what today we call economics. He championed the benefits of specialization and free trade, creating the very idea of the modern market economy that dominates the free world today.