An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

London: printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell,, 1776. The foundation of modern economics First edition of "the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (PMM). The first edition is thought to have had a press run of either 500 or 750 copies (Tribe). 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). Two volumes, quarto (273 x 208 mm). Contemporary calf, rebacked and recornered to style, spines richly gilt with twin black morocco labels, new endpapers. Housed in custom-made brown quarter morocco solander box by J. & S. Brockman. Bound with terminal blank leaf in Volume I and half-title in Volume II. Extremities restored, light scuffing to covers, light staining in gutter of early leaves, some foxing to contents: a very good copy. Einaudi 5328; Goldsmiths' 11392; Grolier, English 57; Kress 7621; Printing and the Mind of Man 221; Rothschild 1897; Tribe 9; Vanderblue, p. 3.