Read On the Wealth of Nations Online
Authors: P.J. O'Rourke
Chapter 12
1. TMS 35
2. TMS 81
3. Ibid.
4. TMS 249
5. TMS 249â50
6. W/ML 985
7. W/ML 766
8. W/ML 767
9. Bernard Mandeville,
The Fable of the Bees
, vol. 1, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1924), 369.
10. Ibid., 24, 25, 26.
11. TMS 308
12. LJ 181
13. W/ML 868
14. W/ML 1025â6
15. W/ML 1026
16. Ibid.
17. W/ML 671
18. W/ML 763â4
19. TMS 187
20. W/ML 527
21. Ibid.
Chapter 13
1. Rae 372
2. CAS 112â13
3. Quoted in Paul Johnson,
Intellectuals
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988), 26.
4. TMS 225
5. TMS 163
6. Richard Brookhiser,
Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington
(New York, Free Press, 1996), 131â2.
7. CAS 275
8. ISR 310
9. Rae 170
10. ISR 227
11. CAS 252â3
12. W/ML 152
13. CAS 269
14. DS 72
15. ISR 311
16. ISR 416
17. DS 97
18. ISR 214
19. TMS 199
20. W/ML 185
21. Rae 213
22. Rae 211; ISR 210; West 146
23. TMS 143
24. TMS 23
25. Rae 372, 374
26. TMS 224â5
27. CAS 33â5
28. TMS 41
29. Rae 156
30. Rae 35
31. Rae 288
32. Rae 5
33. Rae 12
34. W/ML 821
35. Rae 34
36. TMS 193
37. West 204
38. W/ML 832
39. W/ML 907
40. W/ML 925
41. W/ML 960
42. Rae 383
43. Rae 405
44. Rae 289
45. Rae 290
46. West 187â8
47. W/ML 889â90
48. W/ML 970
49. Ibid.
50. W/ML 94
51. TMS 280
52. Rae 435
Chapter 14
1. TMS 235
2. TMS 166
3. Ibid.
4. TMS 178
5. TMS 384
6. TMS 292
7. Rae 96
8. TMS 132
9. TMS 139
10. TMS 292
11. TMS 244
12. TMS 188
13. TMS 339
14. W/ML 945
15. TMS 299
16. W/ML 642
17. TMS 293
18. TMS 320
19. TMS 210
20. W/ML 829
21. W/ML 828
Appendix
1. W/ML 110
2. W/ML 422â3
3. W/ML 793
4. W/ML 124, 126
5. TMS 136
6. TMS 51
7. Ibid.
8. TMS 61
9. W/ML 96â7
10. W/ML 719
11. TMS 334
12. W/ML 625
13. W/ML 800
14. W/ML 387
15. W/ML 834
16. TMS 205
17. W/ML 840
18. W/ML 392
19. W/ML 115
20. W/ML 455
21. W/ML 808
22. W/ML 63
23. W/ML 749
24. W/ML 563
25. W/ML 570
26. TMS 60
27. W/ML 746
28. W/ML 376
29. W/ML 468
30. W/ML 148â9
31. TMS 105
32. W/ML 820
33. TMS 185
34. W/ML 821
35. TMS 15
36. W/ML 86
37. TMS 35â6
38. W/ML 379
39. W/ML 980
40. W/ML 559
41. W/ML 13
42. W/ML 80
43. W/ML 92
44. W/ML 880
45. W/ML 457
46. W/ML 456
47. W/ML 676
48. TMS 29
49. W/ML 798
50. W/ML 877
51. W/ML 853
52. TMS 57
53. TMS 55
54. TMS 258
55. W/ML 244
56. W/ML 681â2
57. W/ML 198
58. W/ML 976
59. CAS 262n
60. TMS 335
61. W/ML 152
62. W/ML 188â9
63. W/ML 835
64. W/ML 573
65. TMS 182â3
66. W/ML 620
67. W/ML 847
68. W/ML 688
69. TMS 228
70. W/ML 797
71. Rae 35
72. W/ML 418
73. W/ML 79
74. W/ML 93
75. W/ML 473
76. W/ML 996
77. W/ML 878
78. TMS 190
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.
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 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.
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).
American Revolution,
124
â30
asceticism,
192
â93
banking,
59
banks
See also specific topics
British Empire,
119
â24,
130
â31.
See also
American Revolution
burghers.
See
feudalism
capital, human,
74
capitalism
fraudulent aspect,
95
Smith as capitalism's therapist,
53
â
56
Smith as original money maven of,
52
â
53
Cato Institute,
15
Chinese trade,
98
â
101
,
104
â10
colonialism,
119
â20,
122
â23.
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
See also
privatization
democracy,
157
â60
economic planning.
See
government economic planning
economic success, achieving,
109
economic theory,
115
See also specific topics
education,
138
â42.
See also
Glasgow University;
Oxford University
See also
British Empire
equality,
40
experts, ignoring the,
82
foreign trade.
See
Chinese trade;
globalization;
trade
Founding Fathers,
125
See also specific topics
freedom,
42
.
See also specific types of freedom
French physiocrats,
111
â15
French Revolution,
117
Glasgow University,
181
â82
goods
vs.
services,
72
government
law and,
29
government economic planning,
70
â
84
government functions, privatization of,
49
,
137
â38
government spending,
73
gross domestic product (GDP),
83
â
84
housing market,
58
human capital,
74
See also
self-interest
Hume, David
friendship with Smith,
174
â76,
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
â
37
,
54
See also
British Empire
inflation,
150
inheritance taxes,
145
Japanese trade,
106
â7
jurisprudence,
29
justice,
134
â36
justice system, how to improve,
136
divisibility of,
43
See also
Smith, principles of
'productive'
vs.
'unproductive,'
112
,
184
property as based on,
179
See also
property
law and government,
29
lobbying,
49
marginal utility, law of,
44
â
45
market restraints and restrictions,
9
mercantilism,
23
â
24
,
102
,
103
,
107
â8,
120
See also
banks;
specific topics
See also Theory of Moral Sentiments
national debt,
150
.
See also
debt
'natural aristocracy',
158
â59
Oxford University,
180
Paris, Treaty of,
185
pernicious gains and losses,
50
physiocrats,
111
â15
pneumatics,
195
political systems,
115
â18,
154
â56
politicians,
162
successful,
154
views of Smith,
185
â86
vs.
economics,
160
â61
vs.
morality,
160
See also
feudalism
price, indivisibility of,
43
â
47
price theory,
44
property.
See also
land
and power,
87
property taxes,
146
religion,
141
â44,
158
,
179
â80,
190
â92
self-interest, pursuit of,
2
,
7
,
9
,
95
â
96
,
193
.
See also
Smith, principles of
See also
feudalism
See also
feudalism
See also specific topics
biographies of,
5
career goal and motivations,
26
â
27
death,
188
â89
Dictionnaire Philosophique
,
197
friendship with Hume,
174
â75
philosophical views,
190
â95
principles of
public speaking,
18
sense of humor,
20
skepticism,
192
â95
who he really was,
164
â78
writings and lectures,
29
.
See also specific books
Snell Exhibition,
180
See also
labor, division of
speculative systems,
195
superego,
32
sympathy, imaginative/moral,
30
â
35
,
179
See also
feudalism
progressive,
146
theoretical political systems.
See
political systems
Theory of Moral Sentiments, The
(Smith),
26
,
29
â
37
,
40
â
41
,
115
,
153
â60,
163
,
183
totalitarianism,
117
See also
Chinese trade;
globalization
See also
Smith, principles of
negative balance of,
109
â10
wrecking the balance of,
73
trade barriers,
74
.
See also
tariffs
utilitarian ideas of Hume,
193
See also specific topics
Smith plan for increased,
65
â
67
Wealth of Nations, The
(Smith).
See also specific topics
book 5
'Of Taxes',
144
â49
'Of the Expence of Justice',
134
â36
'Of the Expence of the Institutions for the Education of Youth',
138
â41
'Of the Expence of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of all Ages',
141
â44
'Of the Public Works and Institutions for facilitating the Commerce of Society',
137
â38
length and expansive nature,
14
â
17
,
19
â
22
organization,
38
principles.
See
Smith, principles of
responses to publication of,
9
,
184
â85
Whig party,
186