An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, with a Memoir of the Author's Life

Complete in one volume.  x, 11-646, [2].  Brown cloth-covered boards with blind rules and decorations, gilt lettering on spine.  8vo.  Cloth is worn, rubbed around edges and and rounded at corners and spine ends, small indentation along fore-edge, faded, obscuring titling.  Text block edges toned, slightly affecting extreme page margins.  Hinges partially cracked.  Some marks and minor indentations on endpapers, faint and occasional spotting on first and last few leaves else internally neat and clean.  Firmly bound. An early single volume edition of Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith's magnum opus.   The Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776, provides one of the first accounts of what makes a nation wealthy and became a foundational work of classical economics.  Reflecting on the emerging industrial revolution, Smith introduces key economic ideas which shaped market capitalism such as the division of labour, productivity and free markets.