The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (the best motivational books .TXT) π
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The Wealth of Nations is economist Adam Smithβs magnum opus and the foundational text of what today we call classical economics. Its publication ushered in a new era of thinking and discussion about how economies function, a sea change away from the older, increasingly-irrelevant mercantilist and physiocratic views of economics towards a new practical application of economics for the birth of the industrial era. Its scope is vast, touching on concepts like free markets, supply and demand, division of labor, war, and public debt. Its fundamental message is that the wealth of a nation is measured not by the gold in the monarchβs treasury, but by its national income, which in turn is produced by labor, land, and capital.
Some ten years in the writing, The Wealth of Nations is the product of almost two decades of notes, study, and discussion. It was released to glowing praise, selling out its first print run in just six months and going through five subsequent editions and countless reprintings in Smithβs lifetime. It began inspiring legislators almost immediately and continued to do so well into the 1800s, and influenced thinkers ranging from Alexander Hamilton to Karl Marx.
Today, it is the second-most-cited book in the social sciences that was published before 1950, and its legacy as a foundational text places it in the stratosphere of civilization-changing books like Principia Mathematica and The Origin of Species.
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- Author: Adam Smith
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In 1762. β©
See above, here. β©
See this note. β©
See Dictionaire des Monnoies, tom. ii article Seigneurage, p. 489 par M. Abot de Bazinghen, Conseiller-Commissaire en la Cour des Monnoies Γ Paris. ββ Smith
Ed. 1 reads erroneously βtom. i.β The book is TraitΓ© des Monnoies et de la jurisdiction de la Cour des Monnoies en forme de dictionnaire, par M. Abot de Bazinghen, Conseiller-Commissaire en la Cour des Monnoies de Paris, 1764, and the page is not 489, but 589. Garnier, in his edition of the Wealth of Nations, vol. v, p. 234, says the book βnβest guΓ¨re quβune compilation faite sans soin et sans discernement,β and explains that the mint price mentioned above remained in force a very short time. It having failed to bring bullion to the mint, much higher prices were successively offered, and when the Wealth of Nations was published the seignorage only amounted to about 3 percent. On the silver coin it was then about 2 percent, in place of the 6 percent stated by Bazinghen, p. 590. ββ Cannan β©
βAn act for encouraging of coinage,β 18 Car. II, c. 5. The preamble says, βWhereas it is obvious that the plenty of current coins of gold and silver of this kingdom is of great advantage to trade and commerce; for the increase whereof, your Majesty in your princely wisdom and care hath been graciously pleased to bear out of your revenue half the charge of the coinage of silver money.β β©
Originally enacted for five years, it was renewed by 25 Car. II, c. 8, for seven years, revived for seven years by 1 Jac. II, c. 7, and continued by various Acts till made perpetual by 9 Geo. III, c. 25. β©
Ed. 1 reads βtear and wear.β β©
Above, here. β©
Under 19 Geo. II, c. 14, Β§ 2, a maximum of Β£15,000 is prescribed. β©
βChieflyβ is not in ed. 1. β©
Ed. 1 reads βthat of Congo, Angola and Loango.β β©
P. F. X. de Charlevoix, Histoire de lβIsle Espagnole ou de S. Domingue, 1730, tom. i, p. 99. β©
Histoire Naturelle, tom. xv (1750), pp. 160, 162. β©
P. F. X. de Charlevoix, Histoire de lβIsle Espagnole, tom. i, pp. 35, 36. β©
Histoire de lβIsle Espagnole p. 27. β©
Above, here. β©
Ed. 1 (in place of these two sentences) reads, βThe tax upon silver, indeed, still continues to be a fifth of the gross produce.β Cp. above, here. β©
βThat mighty, rich and beautiful empire of Guiana, andβ ββ β¦ that great and golden city which the Spaniards call El Dorado.β ββ Raleghβs Works, ed. Thomas Birch, 1751, vol. ii, p. 141 β©
P. Jos. Gumilla, Histoire naturelle civile et gΓ©ographique de lβOrΓ©noque, etc., traduite par M. Eidous, 1758, tom. ii, pp. 46, 117, 131, 132, 137, 138, but the sentiment is apparently attributed to the author, who is described on the title page as βde la compagnie de JΓ©sus, supΓ©rieur des missions de lβOrΓ©noque,β on the strength of a mistranslation of the French or possibly the original Spanish. If βDieu permitβ were mistranslated βGod permit,β the following passage from pp. 137, 138 would bear out the text: βOn cherchait une vallΓ©e ou un territoire dont les rochers et les pierres Γ©taient dβor, et les Indiens pour flatter la cupiditΓ© des Espagnols, et les Γ©loigner en mΓͺme temps de chez eux, leur peignaient avec les couleurs les plus vives lβor dont ce pavs abondait pour se dΓ©barrasser plutΓ΄t de ces hΓ΄tes incommodes, et Dieu permit que les Espagnols ajoutassent foi Γ ces rapports, pour quβils dΓ©couvrissent un plus grand nombre de provinces, et que la lumiΓ¨re de lβEvangile pΓ»t sβy rΓ©pandre avec plus de facilitΓ©.β β©
Eds. 1β ββ 4 reads βsupport.β β©
Miletus and Crotona. β©
Ed. 1 reads βits.β β©
See above, here. β©
Juan and Ulloa, Voyage historique, tom. i, p. 229. β©
In Awnsham and John Churchillβs Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1704, vol. iv, p. 508. β©
C. above, here. β©
Raynal, Histoire Philosophique, Amsterdam ed., 1773, tom. iii, pp. 347β ββ 352. β©
Histoire Philosophique, tom. iii, p. 424. β©
Histoire Philosophique, tom. vi, p. 8. β©
A mistake for 1664. β©
P. F. X. de Charlevoix, Histoire et description gΓ©nΓ©rale de la Nouvelle France, avec le journal historique dβun voyage dans lβAmΓ©rique Septentrionnale, 1744, tom. ii, p. 300, speaks of a population of 20,000 to 25,000 in 1713. Raynal says in 1753 and 1758 the population, excluding troops and Indians, was 91,000. ββ Histoire philosophique, Amsterdam ed., 1773, tom. vi, p. 137 β©
Ed. 1 reads βthe.β β©
Eds. 1 and 2 read βtheir.β β©
Jus Majoratus. ββ Smith
Ed. 1 reads βmayorazzoβ in the text and βmayoratusβ in the note. ββ Cannan β©
Above, here through here, and cp. here. β©
This and the preceding sentence, beginning βThe plenty,β are not in ed. 1.
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