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An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Contributions

Adam Smith
author
William Strahan
publisher

Related resources

has translation
Recherches sur la Nature et les Causes de la Richesse des Nations: Traduit de l'anglois de M. Smith translation has translation
has translation
Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations, traduites de l'anglois de M. Smith, sur la quatrième edition, par M. Roucher, et suivies d'un volume de notes, par M. le Marquis de Condorcet translation has paratext
has translation
Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations, par Adam Smith. Traduction nouvelle, avec des notes et des observations, par Germain Garnier de l'Institut national translation has paratext

Notes

Smith's work was a major step in founding the science of economics. Its reception in France was slow, crawling from the Hague to Paris, until during the Revolution, it was reprinted, retranslated and widely read. By 1802, it was being offered in annotated editions for students of economics.

A review in the Journal des savants (Feb 1777) translated Smith's entire introduction. Morellet, who received a copy from Smith was initially keen to translate but was checked by fear of censorship.

It was reprinted many times, with corrections and additions, with Thomas Cadell, from 1778 onwards, including 1791, 1792, 1793, 1795 & 1799.

The first Italian translation was taken from the Blavet translation (1780).

See Kenneth E. Carpenter, 'The Dissemination of the Wealth of Nations in French and in France, 1776–1843' (NY: The Bibliographical Society of America, 2002); and Hiroshi Mizuta, 'A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith' (Routledge, 2002), p.228.