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The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • The Wealth of Nations

  • With a foreword by George Osborne, MP and an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond

  • by Adam Smith
  • £13.99
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    • Product code: 61042
    • ISBN: 1905641265, ISBN13: 9781905641260, 624 pages, hardback
      Published by Harriman House on 2007 , 1st
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    Description of The Wealth of Nations

    The Wealth of Nations is a treasured classic of political economy. First published in March of 1776, Adam Smith wrote the book to influence a special audience – the British Parliament – and its arguments in the early spring of that year pressed for peace and cooperation with Britain's colonies rather than war.

    Smith's message was that economic exploitation, through the monopoly trade of empire, stifled wealth-creation in both home and foreign lands. Moreover, protectionism preserved the status quo, and privileged a few elites at the expense of long run growth.

    Smith wrote, "It is the industry which is carried on for the benefit of the rich and the powerful that is principally encouraged by our mercantile system. That which is carried on for the benefit of the poor and the indigent is too often either neglected or oppressed."

    This edition, based on the classic Cannan version of the text, includes a foreword by George Osborne MP and an introduction by Jonathan B. Wight, University of Richmond, which aims to place the work in a business context. Wight also provides an invaluable ‘Notable Quotes’ section where he extracts and categorises some of the most famous and pertinent sections of Smith’s work.

    This classic work is as essential today as it was when it first written.

    Reviews

    "Adam Smith was the first to see that the measure of a nation's wealth was not money, but the industry and enterprise of its people. That a thriving and growing economy could lift whole nations out of poverty. And that the keys to economic growth were incentives, free enterprise, and productivity. That makes The Wealth of Nations just as relevant today as when it was written. So I am delighted to see this handsome new edition.

    For years I have looked around for a really nice hardback edition of The Wealth of Nations without finding one. But this new edition is splendid, the sort of thing I am pleased to have on my shelf, and which would make a fine gift too.

    An enormously useful feature of this edition is the selection of famous quotes at the beginning. Smith's insightful epigrams such as "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest" and his famous remarks on the "invisible hand" can be hard to find in the original, but here they all are, laid out easily and accessibly. There is also a brief guide which explains to the reader what Smith was trying to do in each section of the work, which makes reading it much easier."
    - Dr Eamonn Butler, Director, Adam Smith Institute

    Contents of The Wealth of Nations

    Foreword by George Osborne, MP
    Editor's Introduction by Johnathan B.Wight, University of Richmond
    Notes on the Text
    Introduction and Plan of the Work
    Notable Quotes from The Wealth of Nations

    Contents to The Wealth of Nations

    Book I
    Of the Causes of Improvement in the productive Powers of Labour, and of the order according to which its Produce is naturally distributed among the different Ranks of the people.

    CHAPTER I
    Of the Division of Labour

    CHAPTER II
    Of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division of Labour

    CHAPTER III
    That the Division of labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market

    CHAPTER IV
    Of the Origin and Use of Money

    CHAPTER V
    Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or of their Price in Labour, and their Price in Money

    CHAPTER VI
    Of the Component parts of the Price of Commodities

    CHAPTER VII
    Of the Natural and Market Price of Commodities

    CHAPTER VIII
    Of the Wages of Labour

    CHAPTER IX
    Of the Profits of Stock

    CHAPTER X
    Of Wages and Profit in the Different Employments of Labour and Stock

    PART I. Inequalities arising from the nature of the employments themselves
    PART II Inequalities occasioned by the Policy of Europe

    CHAPTER XI
    Of the Rent of Land

    PART I. Of the Produce of Land which always affords Rent
    PART II. Of the Produce of Land, which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent
    PART III. Of the variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of that sort of Produce which always affords Rent, and of that which sometimes does, and sometimes does not, afford Rent
    Digression concerning the Variations in the value of Silver during the Course of the Four last Centuries

    FIRST PERIOD
    SECOND PERIOD
    THIRD PERIOD
    Variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of Gold and Silver Grounds of the suspicion that the Value of Silver still continues to decrease Different Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon three different sorts of rude Produce

    First Sort
    Second sort
    Third Sort

    Conclusion of the Digression concerning the Variations in the Value of Silver Effects of the Progress of Improvement upon the real Price of Manufactures

    CONCLUSION of the CHAPTER
    PRICES OF WHEAT

    Book II
    Of the Nature, Accululation, and Employment of Stock

    CHAPTER I
    Of the Division of Stock

    CHAPTER II
    Of Money, Considered as a Particular Branch of theGeneral Stock of the Society, or of the Expense of Maintaining the National Capital

    CHAPTER III
    Of the Accumulation of Capital, or of Productive and Unproductive Labour

    CHAPTER IV
    Of Stock Lent at Interest

    CHAPTER V
    Of the Different Employment of Capitals

    Book III
    Of the Different Progress of Opulence in Different Nations

    CHAPTER I
    Of the Natural Progress of Opulence

    CHAPTER II
    Of the Discouragement of Agriculture in the Ancient State of Europe, after the Fall of the Roman Empire

    CHAPTER III
    Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, after the Fall of the Roman Empire

    CHAPTER IV
    How the Commerce of the Towns Contributed to the Improvement of the country

    Book IV
    Of Systems of Political Economy
    Introduction

    CHAPTER I
    Of the Principle of the Commercial or Mercantile System

    CHAPTER II
    Of Restraints upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of such Goods can be produced at Home

    CHAPTER III
    Of the extraordinary Restraints upon the Importation of Goods of almost all Kinds, from those Countries with which the Balance is supposed to be Disadvantageous

    PART I. Of the Unreasonableness of those Restraints, even upon the Principles of the Commercial System
    Digression concerning Banks of Deposit, particularly concerning that of Amsterdam
    PART II. Of the Unreasonableness of those extraordinary Restraints, upon other Principles

    CHAPTER IV
    Of Drawbacks

    CHAPTER V
    Of Bounties
    Digression concerning the Corn Trade and Corn Laws

    CHAPTER VI
    Of Treaties of Commerce

    PART I
    PART II
    PART III

    CHAPTER VII
    Of Colonies

    PART I. Of the Motives for Establishing New Colonies
    PART II. Causes of the Prosperity of New Colonies
    PART III. Of the Advantages which Europe has derived From the Discovery of America, and from that of a Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope

    CHAPTER VIII
    Conclusion of the Mercantile System

    CHAPTER IX
    Of the Agricultural Systems, or of those Systems of Political Economy which Represent the Produce of Land, as either the Sole or the Principle Source of the Revenue and Wealth of Every Country

    Appendix to Book IV

    Book V
    Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

    CHAPTER I
    Of the Expenses of the Sovereign or Commonwealth

    PART I. Of the Expense of Defence
    PART II. Of the Expense of Justice
    PART III. Of the Expense of public Works and public Institutions

    ARTICLE I. Of the public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of the Society, And, first, of those which are necessary for facilitating Commerce in general
    Of the public Works and Institution which are necessary for facilitating particular Branches of Commerce
    ARTICLE II. Of the Expense of the Institution for the Education of Youth
    ARTICLE III. Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of all Ages

    PART IV. Of the Expense of supporting the Dignity of the Sovereign
    CONCLUSION

    CHAPTER II
    Of the Sources of the General or Public Revenue of the Society

    PART I. Of the Funds, or Sources, of Revenue, which may peculiarly belong to the Sovereign or Commonwealth
    PART II. Of Taxes

    ARTICLE I. Taxes upon Rent - Taxes upon the Rent of Land Taxes which are proportioned, not in the Rent, but to the Produce of Land Taxes upon the Rent of Houses
    ARTICLE II. Taxes upon Profit, or upon the Revenue arising from Stock Taxes upon the Profit of particular Employments

    APPENDIX TO ARTICLES I AND II - Taxes upon the Capital Value of Lands, Houses, and Stock

    ARTICLE III. Taxes upon the Wages of Labour
    ARTICLE IV. Taxes which it is intended should fall indifferently upon every different Species of Revenue
    Capitation Taxes
    Taxes upon Consumable Commodities
    Consumable commodities are either necessaries or luxuries

    CHAPTER III
    Of Public Debts

    INDEX

    About Adam Smith

    Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and pioneering political economist and one of the key figures of the intellectual movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment.

    He is now depicted on the back of the brand new £20 note.

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