About this Item
Full Description: SMITH, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The Third Edition, With Additions. In Three Volumes. London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1784. The first octavo edition and third edition overall. This is the most expanded edition with an appendix and index, the least revisions Smith personally made. Three octavo volumes (8 x 5 inches; 203 x 127 mm). viii, 499, [1, blank]; vi, 518, [5, Appendix], [1, blank]; v, [1, blank], 465, [1, blank, [49, Index], [1, publisher's ads] pp. Uniformly bound in full contemporary speckled calf, rebacked to style. Boards ruled in blind. Spines ruled in gilt. Red morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. Board edges gilt. Top edges dyed brown. Previous owner's old in signature to top margin of title-page of volume I. Some minor foxing and some toning, mainly to endpapers and first and last few leaves of each volume. A small closed tear to top margin of leaf S in volume II, only touching headline. Overall a very good, clean copy. According to Sabin, "This edition also contains an index. It is the last revision Smith made, and all subsequent alterations have been made by his editors." Adam Smith (1723-1790) spent ten years in the writing and perfecting of The Wealth of Nations. "The book succeeded at once, and the first edition was exhausted in six months.Whether it be true or not, as Buckle said, that the 'Wealth of Nations' was, 'in its ultimate results, probably the most important that had ever been written'.it is probable that no book can be mentioned which so rapidly became an authority both with statesmen and philosophers" (D.N.B.). "The history of economic theory up to the end of the nineteenth century consists of two parts: the mercantilist phase which was based not so much on a doctrine as on a system of practice which grew out of social conditions; and the second phase which saw the development of the theory that the individual had the right to be unimpeded in the exercise of economic activity. While it cannot be said that Smith invented the latter theory. his work is the first major expression of it. He begins with the thought that labour is the source from which a nation derives what is necessary to it. The improvement of the division of labour is the measure of productivity and in it lies the human propensity to barter and exchange. Labour represents the three essential elements- wages, profit and rent- and these three also constitute income. From the working of the economy, Smith passes to its matter- 'stock'- which compasses all that man owns either for his own consumption or for the return which it brings him. The Wealth of Nations ends with a history of economic development, a definitive onslaught on the mercantile system, and some prophetic speculations on the limits of economic control.The Wealth of Nations is not a system, but as a provisional analysis it is complete convincing. The certainty of its criticism and its grasp of human nature have made it the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (Printing and the Mind of Man 221, describing the 1776 first edition). ESTC T95115. Goldsmiths' 11663. Kress B154. Printing and the Mind of Man 221. Sabin 82304. HBS 69449. $15,000.
Seller Inventory # 69449
Contact seller
Report this item
