ADAM SMITH, L L. D. AND F. R. S. OF LONDON AND EDINBURGH: AND FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE first Edition of the following Work was printed in the end of the year 1775, and in the beginning of the year 1776. Through the greater part of the Book, therefore, whenever the present ftate of things is mentioned, it is to be understood of the ftate they were in, either about that time or at fome earlier period, during the time I was employed in writing the Book. To the third Edition, however, I have made feveral additions, particularly to the chapter upon Drawbacks, and to that upon Bounties; likewife a new chapter entitled, The Conclufion of the Mercantile Syftem, and a new article to the chapter upon the expenfes of the fovereign. In all these additions, the prefent fate of things means always the state in which they were during the year 1783 and the beginning of the year 1784. ADVERTISEMENT то тн Е FOURTH EDITION. IN IN this fourth Edition I have made no alterations of any kind. I now, however, find myself at liberty to acknowledge my very great obligations to Mr. HENRY HOP of Amfterdam. To that Gentleman I owe the moft diftinct, as well as liberal information, concerning a very interesting and important fubject, the Bank of Amsterdam; of which no printed account had ever appeared. to me fatisfactory, or even intelligible. The name of that Gentleman is fo well known in Europe, the information which comes from him. muft do fo much honor to whoever has been favored with it, and my vanity is fo much interested in making this acknowledgment, that I can no longer refuse myself the pleasure of prefixing this Advertisement to this new Edition of my Book. |