An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
« The first and greatest classic of modern economic thought » (PMM).
Very rare second octavo edition, and fourth edition overall, of La Richesse des Nations d’Adam Smith (1723-1790).
Bel exemplaire imprimé sur papier fort, très pur, conservé dans sa reliure de l’époque.
2 tomes en 2 volumes in-8 de : I/ XIII et 498 pp. ; II/ (4) ff., 489 pp., (30) ff.
Veau moucheté, dos lisses ornés de filets dorés, pièces de titre en maroquin rouge, de tomaison en maroquin vert, roulette à froid sur les coupes, discrètes restaurations anciennes. Reliure de l’époque.
205 x 125 mm.
Smith, Adam. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of Nations. The fourth edition, with additions.
Dublin, printed for Mssrs. W. Colles, R. Moncrieffe, G. Burnet, W. Wilson…, 1785.
Très rare seconde édition in-8 et quatrième édition du plus grand classique de la pensée économique moderne.
Very rare second octavo edition, the fourth overall of the "first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (PMM).
Kress, B967 ; PMM, 221 (pour l’édition de 1776).
Adam Smith's masterpiece, first published in 1776, is the foundation of modern economic thought and remains the single most important account of the rise of, and the principles behind, modern capitalism. 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 " (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).
« Ce Traité de Smith est l’un des ouvrages les plus profonds et les plus utiles que ce siècle ait produits » (Beuchot)
«The Wealth of Nations, coming at a point when « natural liberty » was being widely debated, had a decisive influence on the study of national economic and on the freeing of economic policy from the artificial restraint of the mercantilist system. 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 The Wealth of Nations’ criticism and its grasp of human nature have made it the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought » (PMM).
« Adam Smith. Ce nom est le plus grand de l’économie politique ; il a eu cette singulière fortune de marquer son empreinte d’une manière ineffaçable dans le monde intellectuel et dans celui des faits. L’ouvrage paru, Hume qui le félicita, ne fit que devancer le jugement de la postérité, qui a associé le nom de Smith à ceux de Grotius et de Montesquieu. Tout dans son ouvrage est traité avec le calme souverain d’une raison supérieure et un bon sens immuable, qui, poussé jusqu’à cette limite, est le génie même. Nul avant Smith n’avait montré avec plus de clairvoyance et de netteté les avantages de la liberté économique » (Ch. Coquelin).
Bel exemplaire du premier et du plus grand classique de la pensée économique moderne, imprimé sur papier fort, très pur, grand de marges, conservé dans sa reliure de l’époque.
Eighteenth century editions of Smith’s magnum opus are becoming very scarce; even more when published in the author’s lifetime and kept in its original binding.
