30/06/2008 09:01:00

A statue of the "father of economics", Adam Smith, is to be unveiled on Friday at 1215 BST in Edinburgh.

The sculpture will be placed beside St. Giles Cathedral, opposite Edinburgh's City Chambers, on the Royal Mile and is to be unveiled by Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith.

Adam Smith was born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and became a pioneering political economist. His great work, The Wealth of Nations, is considered to be one of the most influential books ever written.

An eminent figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith attended Glasgow University but left to go to Oxford after being awarded the Snell Exhibition, a post-graduate scholarship.

However, he found his Oxford education inferior to that of Glasgow and left before his scholarship was over. Afterwards, he began lecturing in Edinburgh, which is when he began to focus on economics.

The statue, created by Paisley sculptor Sandy Stoddard, will also be positioned closely to another of the High Street's renowned monuments, the statue of philosopher David Hume. Hume and Smith were close friends in the 18th century, sharing many intellectual and moral opinions.

The BBC reports that the statue has been paid for by private subscription, which was arranged by the Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr. Eamonn Butler.

The construction of the landmark follows another tribute to Smith: the introduction of a new £20 note featuring his profile that was brought into circulation last year.