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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Misprinted βtheirβ in Eds. 4 and 5. β©
Lectures, p. 10. β©
Lectures, p. 15: βTill there be property there can be no government, the very end of which is to secure wealth and to defend the rich from the poor.β Cp. Locke, Civil Government, Β§ 94, βgovernment has no other end but the preservation of property.β β©
They are to be found in Tyrrelβs History of England. ββ Smith
General History of England, Both Ecclesiastical and Civil, by James Tyrrell, vol. ii, 1700, pp. 576β ββ 579. The king is Richard I, not Henry II. ββ Cannan β©
Ed. 1 reads βexcept when they stand in need of the interposition of his authority in order to protect them from the oppression of some of their fellow subjects.β β©
Iliad, ix, 149β ββ 156, but the presents are not the βsole advantageβ mentioned. β©
The extraordinary accent here and seven lines lower down appears first in ed. 2. β©
Smith was in Toulouse from February or March, 1764, to August, 1765. ββ Rae, Life of Adam Smith, pp. 174, 175, 188 β©
Lectures, p. 49. Above, here. β©
These two lines are not in Eds. 1 and 2. See this note. β©
Eds. 1β ββ 4 read βisβ; cp. this note. β©
Ed. 1 reads βtear and wear.β β©
Ed. 1 reads βseems to be capable.β β©
Since publishing the two first editions of this book, I have got good reasons to believe that all the turnpike tolls levied in Great Britain do not produce a neat revenue that amounts to half a million; a sum which, under the management of Government, would not be sufficient to keep in repair five of the principal roads in the kingdom. ββ Smith
This and the next note appear first in ed. 3. ββ Cannan β©
I have now good reasons to believe that all these conjectural sums are by much too large. β©
Ed. 1 reads here and two lines lower down βtear and wear.β β©
Ed. 1 reads βpartly in the six daysβ labour.β β©
Here and in the next sentence for βthe labour of the country people,β ed. 1 reads βthe six daysβ labour.β β©
Voyages de FranΓ§ois Bernier, Amsterdam, 1710, can scarcely be said to discredit the ordinary eulogy of Indian roads and canals by an account of any particular works, but it does so by not mentioning them in places where it would be natural to do so if they had existed or been remarkable. See tom. ii, p. 249, βles grandes riviΓ¨res qui en ces quartiers nβont ordinairement point de ponts.β β©
Ed. 1 reads βor.β β©
Ed. 1 reads βtyranny by which the intendant chastises any parish or communautΓ© which has had the misfortune to fall under his displeasure.β β©
This section (ending on here) appears first in Additions and Corrections and ed. 3. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1606. β©
Commerce, AD 1620, and cp. AD 1623. β©
Sir Josiah Child, New Discourse of Trade, etc., chap. iii, divides companies into those in joint stock and those βwho trade not by a joint stock, but only are under a government and regulation.β β©
The company or society of the Merchant Adventurers of England. β©
Additions and Corrections reads βRussian,β probably a misprint, though βRussian,β which is incorrect, appears on the next page. β©
Eds. 1β ββ 3 read βrestraints.β β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1643: the fine was doubled in that year, being raised to Β£100 for Londoners and Β£50 for others. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1661, under which the other two years are also mentioned. β©
Additions and Corrections and Eds. 3 and 4 read βhas.β Smith very probably wrote βthere has been no complaint.β β©
The preamble recites the history of the company. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1672. β©
New Discourse of Trade, chap. iii, quoted by Anderson, Commerce, AD 1672. This part of the book was not published till long after 1672, but seems to have been written before the closing of the Exchequer in that year. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1605, 1643, 1753. β©
Additions and Corrections reads βextensive.β β©
See the preamble to 26 Geo. II, c. 18. ββ Anderson, Commerce, AD 1753 β©
New Discourse of Trade, chap. iii. β©
Below, here. β©
Additions and Corrections reads βall the other.β β©
A joint-stock company here is an incorporated or chartered company. The common application of the term to other companies is later. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1723. β©
It stood at this amount from 1746 to the end of 1781, but was then increased by a call of 8 percent. ββ Anderson, Commerce, AD 1746, and (Continuation) AD 1781 β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1672 and AD 1698. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1670. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1698. β©
10 Ann., c. 27. Anderson, Commerce, AD 1712. β©
Anderson, Commerce, AD 1730. The annual grant
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