“THE FIRST AND GREATEST CLASSIC OF MODERN ECONOMIC THOUGHT”: SCARCE FIVE-VOLUME SET OF ADAM SMITH’S TWO MAJOR WORKS,1796 WEALTH OF NATIONS WITH 1797 MORAL SENTIMENTS, RARELY FOUND TOGETHER, UNIFORMLY BOUND IN CONTEMPORARY CALF

SMITH, Adam. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. WITH: Moral Sentiments. London: A. Strahan, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1796, 1797. Five volumes, uniformly bound. Octavo, contemporary full brown tree calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, red and black morocco spine labels.

Early editions of Smith’s two landmark works—the three-volume Wealth of Nations with the two-volume Moral Sentiments—an exceptional set, uniformly bound in handsome contemporary calf.

With Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith crafted “not merely a treatise on moral philosophy and a treatise on economics, but a complete moral and political philosophy, in which the two elements of history and theory were to be closely conjoined” (Palgrave III:412). Smith’s Moral Sentiments was the work that “first carried his fame to the outside world” (PMM). Written while a professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow, Moral Sentiments laid the foundation for Wealth of Nations and proposed the theory expanded there: that self-seeking men are often “led by an invisible hand… without knowing it, without intending it, to advance the interest of the society.” His concept, centering moral sentiment on “the power one man has of putting himself in the place of another,” contrasted with Hume’s theory of self-interest, yet Hume warmly welcomed the work, “and Smith was henceforth recognized as one of the first authors of the day” (DNB). Wealth of Nations is of even more monumental impact, for this was “the first major expression of… the theory that the individual had to the right to be unimpeded in the exercise of economic activity… While the political aspects of human rights had taken two centuries to explore, Smith’s achievement was to bring the study of economic aspects to the same point in a single work… it is the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought” (PMM 221). Buckle’s History of Civilization hailed Wealth of Nations as “probably the most important book which has ever been written.” This is the eighth edition of each work: Moral Sentiments was first published in 1759, Wealth of Nations in 1776. Moral Sentiments with one rear ad leaf (II); Wealth of Nations with one rear ad page (III). Without half-titles. Kress B3289; B3506. Goldsmiths 16558; 17213. Palgrave III:116. See Kress 5815. Wealth of Nations with early owner inscription dated “June 1812”(I), tiny notation to rear free endpaper (II).

Interiors generally fresh with light scattered foxing, contemporary tree calf bindings with some minor restoration to joints and extremities. A highly desirable set, uniformly bound in beautiful contemporary tree calf.