The Scarce Second Edition of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations"
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In two volumes. The second edition.
London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1778.
Full Description:
SMITH, Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. In two volumes. The second edition. London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1778.
Second edition (first published in 1776) and the only other edition to be published in quarto format. One of 500 copies printed. Two quarto volumes (10 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches; 273 x 225 mm). [8], 510; [8], 589, [1, blank] pp. With half-title in Volume II (no half-title called for in Volume I).
Full newer speckled calf. Boards tooled in gilt. Spines with red morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. Spines stamped and numbered in gilt. Gilt board edges. Gilt dentelles. Newer endpapers. Volume one with some newly invisible repairs to the title-page, at gutter, along top margin and to a tiny hole, not affecting text. Text of volume I with some foxing throughout. Volume II, with some neat pencil marginalia, and a pin-sized wormhole to outer blank margin from signature 3A through the end. Still volume II internally very clean. Overall a very good copy.
The second edition is the rarest of the early editions of The Wealth of Nations. Only 500 copies were printed. The third edition consisted of 1,000 copies and the fourth 1,250 copies. It is unknown how many copies of the more common first edition were published. "The second edition exhibits a number of alterations large and small, some providing new information, some correcting matters of fact, some perfecting the idiom, and large number now documenting references in footnotes" (William B. Todd, in the 1976 Oxford edition of The Wealth of Nations).
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).
Kress B.154. Goldsmiths' 11663. Printing and the Mind of Man 221. Sabin 82303. Grolier, 100 English, 57 (describing the 1776 first edition).
HBS 67993.
$28,500.
Price: $28,500.00
Item #67993