AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS

3 volumes. Very early printing. This printing now with an Account of the Life of the Author which has been specially drawn up for the first time, as well as studies on the author and the French economists of the period, and a method of facilitating the study of the work. 8vo, bound in very handsome and well preserved three-quarter contemporary polished calf over cloth covered boards, compartments of the spines decorated with gilt decorated raised bands, bordering decorations tooled in blind, one compartment lettered in gilt, one with maroon morocco lettering label gilt. lxxi, 360; vi, 512, 513-514 appendix; vi, 448, (50 pp.extensive index). An especially bright and fine set in very handsome and well preserved contemporary bindings. The text remains very clean, crisp and fresh. There has been no restoration work of any sort to bindings or text. Rare thus.

Edizione: an unusually well preserved and handsome set of this extraordinary work. eighteenth century editions of smith’s magnum opus are becoming very scarce. this edition of 1811 is a very early english printing of the nineteenth century still in 18th century style. it retains smith’s introduction and also incorporates the author’s advertisements to the third and fourth editions and a new advertisement to this edition setting out the additions made to the preliminary materials for this edition.<br> ‘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 – the physiocrats had already suggested it and turgot in particular had constructed an organised study of social wealth – 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 is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities … it is their real price; money is their nominal price only". 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 definite onslaught on the mercantile system, and some prophetic speculations on the limits of economic control.<br> ‘where the political aspects of human rights had taken two centuries to explore, smith’s achievement was to bring the study of economic aspects to the same point in a single work … the certainty of its criticism and its grasp of human nature have made it the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought’ (pmm). <br> smith's classic work was begun at toulouse in 1763-64 where he had travelled as guardian of henry scott, the young duke of buccleuch, and in the company of david hume, historian and fellow professor at glasgow university. the work took shape over the next ten years and was finally published in 1776. at one point during its composition, hume wrote that smith was "cutting himself off entirely from human society." but his labors, however severe his methods, yielded the "first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (printing and the mind of man).<br> "[i]t may be said that the wealth of nations certainly operated powerfully through the harmony of its critical side with the tendencies of the half-century which followed its publication to the assertion of personal freedom and 'natural rights.' it discredited the economic policy of the past, and promoted the overthrow of institutions which had come down from earlier times, but were unsuited to modern society. as a theoretic treatment of social economy, and therefore as a guide to social reconstruction and practice in the future, it is provisional, not definitive. but when the study of its subject comes to be systematized on the basis of a general social philosophy more complete and durable than smith's, no contribution to that final construction will be found so valuable as his" (britannica)