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

With a Life of the Author. Also, a view of the Doctrine of Smith, compared with that of the French Economists; With a Method off Facilitating the Study of his Work; From the French of M. Garnier. Complete in One Volume.

8vo. iv, xvi, xxx, 404, [25, Index], [1, blank] pp. Near contemporary half calf with marbled paper covered boards, flat spine panelled with simple gilt rules, second panel lettered in gilt, the rest with simple blind stamps (a few instances of occasional minor spotting, otherwise generally internally clean; extremities worn, corners bumped, spine rather rubbed, still a good copy overall). Edinburgh, Peter Brown & T. & W. Nelson; London, T. & J. Allman.

An early-nineteenth century 'one-volume' edition of the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought.

Originally published in 1776, "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).

The text for the present one-volume edition is arranged in two columns and includes ‘A Short Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Adam Smith’ and Garnier’s ‘View’ and 'Method'. 'This printing was stereotyped, a procedure only adopted at this time for works where substantial sales were anticipated. Twenty-one further editions were printed from these plates over the following forty years' (Tribe, p. 37).

This edition is particularly scarce. Not in the British Library, with Copac listing only one copy in the United Kingdom, held by the National Library of Scotland. OCLC list a further three copies in North America. 

Not in Tribe, A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith, who lists an edition with the same imprint published the following year in 1827 (see: Tribe, 137).

Stock Code: 252036