The Wealth of Nations
1776
- economische filosofie
- communism
- finance
- business
- economics
- wealth
- colonization
- économie politique
- early works to 1800
- classical school of economics
The story
Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was recognized as a landmark of human thought upon its publication in 1776. As the first scientific argument for the principles of political economy, it is the point of departure for all subsequent economic thought. Smith's theories of capital accumulation, growth, and secular change, among others, continue to be influential in modern economics. This reprint of Edwin Cannan's definitive 1904 edition of The Wealth of Nations includes Cannan's famous introduction, notes, and a full index, as well as a new preface written especially for this edition by the distinguished economist George J. Stigler. Mr. Stigler's preface will be of value for anyone wishing to see the contemporary relevance of Adam Smith's thought.
What it’s like
Dense, unhurried eighteenth-century prose that reads like a long, sociable argument carried on in measured sentences, with a steady patience for examples from ordinary life: a pin factory's workers dividing their labour, a butcher, a baker, a brewer, the wages of a common labourer. The sensory world is material rather than painterly, full of grain prices, tolls, shipping routes, plantation ledgers and tradesmen's habits, so the imagery arrives through commerce and craft rather than landscape. The voice is wry, humane and often quietly indignant at merchants' conspiracies and idle landlords, with long chapters that circle back and qualify themselves. The mood is studious and lamplit, cozy in a scholarly way. It suits a slow weekend afternoon with a notebook, or reading in short sittings over several weeks. Pacing is digressive and deliberate, with one large idea unfolding gradually across a whole society. Intensity is low: no violence or gore, though slavery and colonial exploitation come up frankly and sometimes with blunt anger. Best for readers who enjoy philosophy and the history of ideas, who like watching a mind work through a big question at its own pace, and who want an annotated classic with its scholarly apparatus.
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