diff --git a/sphinx/environment/__init__.py b/sphinx/environment/__init__.py
index c04073163..251a88589 100644
--- a/sphinx/environment/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/environment/__init__.py
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ class BuildEnvironment(object):
         language = self.config.language or 'en'
         self.settings['language_code'] = language
         if 'smart_quotes' not in self.settings:
-            self.settings['smart_quotes'] = True
+            self.settings['smart_quotes'] = self.config.smartquotes
 
             # some conditions exclude smart quotes, overriding smart_quotes
             for valname, vallist in iteritems(self.config.smartquotes_excludes):