On the Wealth of Nations
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BIBLIOGRPHY
The best way to read Adam Smith is in the Glasgow editions, commissioned by the University of Glasgow to celebrate the 1976 bicentennial of the publication of The Wealth of Nations. A group of preeminent Smith scholars applied themselves to the complete body of Adam Smith's work, including what was recorded of his lectures, and handsomely introduced and annotated it. A separate index covers the multitude of persons and subjects upon which Adam Smith touched. These eight volumes were issued in hardcover by the Oxford University Press. They are also available in paperback from the Liberty Fund in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Liberty Fund editions are exact photographic reproductions of the Oxford books.
I did not, alas, use the Glasgow edition of Wealth for my primary reading. I already had a 1937 Modern Library version that I'd owned for almost forty years and that was dog-eared and underlined (in what - it is to be admitted, few - parts of it I'd read). My Modern Library edition is not without merits. It has a hilarious Marxist introduction by the late wind-bag Max Lerner. More to the point it was edited by Edwin Cannan, and includes his editor's introduction, footnotes, and marginal summaries, all of them excellent. Cannan was perhaps the greatest of all Adam Smith textual authorities - so much so that the text resulting from the very careful editing of the Glasgow edition differs hardly at all from what Cannan produced in 1904.
The Modern Library still has Wealth in print, minus the Marxism. My poor old book has been read to pieces. But I've found another copy from 1937, its dust cover still intact. Here I see that this Modern Library Giant, as it was called, was decorated with a charcoal drawing in socialist realist style on a Bolshevist red background showing some workers of the world very pointlessly yanking a rope. It is to be hoped that the reader has not felt similarly employed with what he or she now holds in hand.
Works of Adam Smith
Modern Library Editions
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by Edwin Cannan. New York: Modern Library, 1937.
The Wealth of Nations. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes by Edwin Cannan. New York: Modern Library, 1994.
The Glasgow Editions
The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Edited by D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Reprint, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner. 2 vols. Oxford, 1976. Liberty Fund, 1981.
Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Edited by W. P. D. Wightman and J. C. Bryce. Oxford, 1980. Liberty Fund, 1982.
Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Edited by J. C. Bryce. Oxford, 1983. Liberty Fund, 1985.
Lectures on Jurisprudence. Edited by R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael, and P. G. Stein. Oxford, 1978. Liberty Fund, 1982.
Correspondence of Adam Smith. Edited by E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross. Oxford, 1977. Liberty Fund, 1987.
Index to the Works of Adam Smith. Compiled by K. Haakonssen and A. S. Skinner. Oxford, 2001. Liberty Fund, 2001.
Other Books and Articles
Boaz, David, ed. The Libertarian Reader. New York: Free Press, 1997.
Buchholz, Todd G. New Ideas from Dead Economists. New York: New American Library, 1989.
Campbell, R. H., and A. S. Skinner. Adam Smith. New York: St Martin's, 1982.
Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
Friedman, Milton, and Rose Friedman. Free to Choose. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.
Fry, Michael, ed. Adam Smith's Legacy. London: Routledge, 1992.
Greenspan, Alan, 'Adam Smith.' Adam Smith Memorial Lecture, Kirkcaldy, Scotland, February 6, 2005. Washington, DC: Federal Reserve Board, 2005. http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2005/20050206/default.htm (accessed August 28, 2006).
Hayek, Friedrich A. von. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
Hazlitt, Henry. Economics in One Lesson. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1946.
Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World. New York: Crown, 2001.
Johnson, Paul. Intellectuals. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
Mandeville, Bernard. The Fable of the Bees. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924.
Pipes, Richard. Property and Freedom. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Rae, John. Life of Adam Smith. London: Macmillan, 1895.
Raphael, D. D. Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Ross, Ian Simpson. The Life of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Ryan, Edward W. In the Words of Adam Smith. Sun Lakes, Ariz.: Thomas Horton, 1990.
Salerno, Joseph T. 'Carl Menger: The Founder of the Austrian School.' Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2005. http://www.mises.org/content/mengerbio.asp (accessed August 28, 2006).
Samuelson, Paul A., and William D. Nordhaus. Economics. 15th edn. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.
Sowell, Thomas. Marxism: Philosophy and Economics. New York: Morrow, 1985.
Stewart, Dugald. Collected Works. Vol. 10, Biographical Memoirs of Adam Smith, William Robertson, Thomas Reid. Edinburgh: T. Constable, 1858.
Tufte, Edward R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd edn. Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press, 2001.
Weatherford, Jack. The History of Money. New York: Crown, 1997.
West, E. G. Adam Smith. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1969.
White, T. H. The Age of Scandal. London: Jonathan Cape, 1950.
Williams, Jonathan, ed. Money: A History. London: British Museum Press, 1997.
Yardeni, Edward E., and David A. Moss. 'The Triumph of Adam Smith.' Topical Study 19. New York: Prudential-Bache Securities, 1990. http://www.adamsmith.org/smith/triumph-of-smith.pdf (accessed August 28, 2006).
INDEX
agriculture, 80–82
American Revolution, 124–30
asceticism, 192–93
Ayr Bank, 67–68
banking, 59
central, 64–65
banks
central, 59, 64–65, 67–69
paper money and, 65–67
nature of, 60–62
need to regulate, 63–64
purpose, 62–64
Britain, 110, 185.
See also specific topics
British Empire, 119–24, 130–31.
See also American Revolution
burghers. See feudalism
buying retail, 77–78
capital, human, 74
capitalism
fraudulent aspect, 95
Smith as capitalism's therapist, 53–56
Smith as champion of, 49–52
Smith as original money maven of, 52–53
Smith as scourge of, 47–49
C
ato Institute, 15
Chinese trade, 98–101, 104–10
Christianity, 144, 158, 191
colonialism, 119–20, 122–23.
See also British Empire
communism, 50.
See also Marxism
conscience, 32
Consolidation Bill, 185
consumption tax, 145
cooperation, 35
Corn Laws, 28
corporate taxes, 145
corporations, 82–83, 92, 93.
See also privatization
debt, 106, 150
democracy, 157–60
economic disparity, 47–48
cause of, 49–50
economic freedom, 6–7
economic planning. See government economic planning
economic success, achieving, 109
economic theory, 115
economics, 82–84.
See also specific topics
origin of, 38–39
economists, 82–84, 112
education, 138–42.
See also Glasgow University;
Oxford University
empires, 119–20, 130.
See also British Empire
Enlightenment, 22–23, 172
equality, 40
experts, ignoring the, 82
feudalism, 88–97
foreign trade. See Chinese trade;
globalization;
trade
Founding Fathers, 125
free markets, 25, 51–52, 56.
See also specific topics
freedom, 42.
See also specific types of freedom
French physiocrats, 111–15
French Revolution, 117
Glasgow University, 181–82
globalization, 79–82
goods vs. services, 72
government
law and, 29
as unproductive, 71–73
government economic planning, 70–84
government functions, privatization of, 49, 137–38
government spending, 73
gross domestic product (GDP), 83–84
housing market, 58
human capital, 74
human nature, 24–25.
See also self-interest
Hume, David
friendship with Smith, 174–76, 193
physiocrats and, 118
on religion and government, 142, 191
A Treatise of Human Nature, 180
on Wealth of Nations, 44
imagination and moral thinking, 29–37, 54
Impartial Spectator, 31–32
imperialism, 120, 130.
See also British Empire
Industrial Revolution, 83–84
inflation, 150
inheritance taxes, 145
investment, 57–58
'invisible hand', 35, 53
Japanese trade, 106–7
jurisprudence, 29
justice, 134–36
justice system, how to improve, 136
labor, 19–20, 46–47
divisibility of, 43
division of, 2, 3, 7, 41, 43.
See also Smith, principles of
'productive' vs. 'unproductive,' 112, 184
property as based on, 179
land, 48, 89–90.
See also property
law and government, 29
Libertarian Reader, The, 15, 16
libertarianism, 51, 146
lobbying, 49
manufacturing, 80, 81
marginal utility, law of, 44–45
market restraints and restrictions, 9
Marxism, 20, 115
mercantilism, 23–24, 102, 103, 107–8, 120
military, 109, 151–52, 159
money, 8, 21, 23, 52.
See also banks;
specific topics
nature of, 59–60
spending, 73, 79
morality, 27, 192–93.
See also Theory of Moral Sentiments
national debt, 150.
See also debt
'natural aristocracy', 158–59
Oxford University, 180
Paris, Treaty of, 185
pernicious gains and losses, 50
philosophy, 163–64, 192–94
physiocrats, 111–15
pneumatics, 195
political systems, 115–18, 154–56
politicians, 162
successful, 154
views of Smith, 185–86
politics, 55, 161
vs. economics, 160–61
vs. morality, 160
power, 87–88, 96.
See also feudalism
price, indivisibility of, 43–47
price theory, 44
privatization, 49, 137–38
profits, 50–51
property.
See also land
and power, 87
property rights, 62, 90
reasons for, 40, 42, 179
property taxes, 146
religion, 141–44, 158, 179–80, 190–92
retailing, 77–78
Roman Empire, 86–87, 120
self-interest, pursuit of, 2, 7, 9, 95–96, 193.
See also Smith, principles of
serfs, 91–92.
See also feudalism
silver, 19, 52
slavery, 90–93, 157.
See also feudalism
Smith, Adam, 4, 5.
See also specific topics
absentmindedness, 172–73, 181
biographies of, 5
career goal and motivations, 26–27
death, 188–89
Dictionnaire Philosophique, 197
friendship with Hume, 174–75
life of, 4, 5, 178–89
philosophical views, 190–95
principles of
less simple, 6–7
more complicated, 7–8
principal effect of, 8–13
simple, 1–4
public speaking, 18
sense of humor, 20
skepticism, 192–95
who he really was, 164–78
writings and lectures, 29.
See also specific books
Snell Exhibition, 180
specialization, 43, 47.
See also labor, division of
speculative systems, 195
superego, 32
sympathy, imaginative/moral, 30–35, 179
tariffs, 81, 105
taxation, 144–49, 184.
See also feudalism
progressive, 146
theoretical political systems. See political systems
Theory of Moral Sentiments, The (Smith), 26, 29–37, 40–41, 115, 153–60, 163, 183
totalitarianism, 117
trade, 3, 109, 123.
See also Chinese trade;
globalization
freedom of, 2–4, 7.
See also Smith, principles of
negative balance of, 109–10
wrecking the balance of, 73
trade barriers, 74.
See also tariffs
United States, 8–9
utilitarian ideas of Hume, 193
wealth, 7–8, 52–53.
See also specific topics
Smith plan for increased, 65–67
Wealth of Nations, The (Smith).
See also specific topics
book 1, 39–43
book 5
'Of Taxes', 144–49
'Of the Expence of Justice', 134–36
'Of the Expence of the Institutions for the Education of Youth', 138–41
'Of the Expence of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of all Ages', 141–44
'Of the Public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of Society', 137–38
length and expansive nature, 14–17, 19–22
organization, 38
principles. See Smith, principles of
resp
onses to publication of, 9, 184–85
writing of, 18–19, 183
Whig party, 186
World Bank, 68–69