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Smith, Adam.. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.. London; Printed for A. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1789., 1789.

Price: US$4548.41 + shipping

Description: Fifth Edition. Octavo, pp., [i-iii] iv-x, 499; [i-iii] iv- vi, 518, [6] Appendix; [i-iii] iv-v [1],465, [1], [50] Index etc. Contemporary speckled tan calf with gilt titles to maroon labels to spine, gilt cornucopia motifs to compartments and gilt fillet to boards; all edges sprinkled brown, marbled endpapers & gilt fillet dentelles. Corners rubbed with minor wear; sympathetic and almost imperceptible repair to joint of upper board of vol. I, with minor loss to spine head and tail; volume II bumped to lower corner of upper board, with minor loss to edge of label; volume III partial loss to number label. Internally a very clean copy with just some minor spotting confined principally to prelims. A handsome early edition in a contemporary binding of the magnum opus of the economist, moral philosopher and key figure of the Scottish Enlightenment Adam Smith (1723-1790). Although not published until 1776, Smith developed and lectured on many of the leading themes in Wealth of Nations whilst teaching at Glasgow, with the work going on to lay the foundations of both classical free market economic theory and the modern academic discipline of economics. "Where the political analysis 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 first and greatest classic of modern economic thought". Kress: Library of Business and Economics Catalogue 1777-1817 p. 85; PMM 221; ESTC: T96680.

Seller: Keel Row Bookshop Ltd - ABA, ILAB & PBFA, Whitley Bay, United Kingdom

SMITH Adam. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. , 1789.

Price: US$4873.30 + shipping

Description: Fifth edition. Three volumes. 8vo. x, 499, [1, blank]; vi, [6, Index], 518; v, [1, blank], 465, [1, Index], [50, Index] pp. Contemporary tree calf, sympathetically rebacked to style with flat spines elaborately panelled in gilt, second and fourth panels lettered in gilt on red and black morocco labels, the rest with decorative gilt stamps, marbled endpapers, yellow edges (neat contemporary initialed ownership inscriptions 'J.M.G.' pencilled inventory numbers to title pages of Vols. I and III, otherwise generally internally clean; rebacked, neat restoration to corners, covers slightly scuffed, still a very attractive copy). London, A. Strahan and T. Cadell. The first and greatest classic of modern economic thought, '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). Originally published in 1776, the fifth edition was the final edition to be published within Smith's lifetime. The text is the same, apart from some minor alterations necessitated mainly by the printer's misreadings, as the important third edition, which represented Smith's final version. Provenance: neat presentation bookplates to front pastedowns of each volume to the German bank manager Dr Wilfried Guth (1919-2009) on the occasion of his retirement from Sir Evelyn de Rothschild in his capacity as Chairman of The European Association for Banking History. Goldsmiths', 13794; Kress, B.1722; Tribe, 33; PMM, 221 (first edition).

Seller: Maggs Bros. Ltd ABA, ILAB, PBFA, BA, London, United Kingdom