THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, A LANDMARK IN ECONOMIC THOUGHT
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1784.
Third edition, first octavo edition. Three volumes. Bound in contemporary calf, with green morocco title labels lettered in gilt and gilt rules to the spines. General light wear to the spine ends, slightly heavier to the head of vol I with the front joint just starting to split. Lower front corner bumped and wear to the lower rear corner of vol. I. Small mark to the bottom edges of vol 3, but internally very fresh. A very good, unsophisticated copy, seldom encountered without repair.
... the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought (PMM).
In his Wealth of Nations, Smith "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
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" (PMM).
"The Wealth of Nations had no rival in scope or depth when published and is still one of the few works in its field to have achieved classic status, meaning simply that it has sustained yet survived repeated reading, critical and adulatory, long after the circumstances which prompted it have become the object of historical enquiry" (ODNB).
Goldsmiths' 11392; Grolier, English 57; PMM 221; Rothschild 1897
Stock ID: 36449
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