HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Loading...

The Wealth of Nations (edition 1985)

by Adam Smith

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
6,071451,613 (3.94)98
Overall, this was an informative read; not for its economic insightfulness but for how its supporters use Smith's theories. There are some basic economic truths and a lot of tedious detail but what is really telling are the outdated ideas and the sweeping generalizations which have carried over to our contemporary economic discussions. ( )
  jimocracy | Apr 18, 2015 |
English (38)  Spanish (4)  German (1)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Hungarian (1)  All languages (45)
Showing 1-25 of 38 (next | show all)
A great book, but not for everyone. Amazing insights which are still as valid today as 1775 when the book was written.

Very detailed, great analysis and I really learned a lot from this book. Hard to read in sections, as it is written in very verbose, antiquated English.

I would recommend it if you are interested in Economics and want to gain a perspective from first principles. ( )
  rendier | Jan 25, 2024 |
L'uomo mena vanto di essere il re del creato, ma può sembrare che, in sostanza, non differisca affatto dagli altri animali. Tuttavia, mamma, c'è una diversità alla quale ho pensato. Forse tu non capisci… E' una facoltà assolutamente esclusiva dell'uomo e consiste nell'aver segreti.
(pagina 44)

Essere vivi. Un'impresa immane, in sostenibile, di fronte alla quale non si può far altro che starsene a fiato sospeso, in preda alla più viva apprensione.
(pagina 106)

Poco fa sono arrivata a comprendere perché al mondo esistono cose come la guerra, la pace, gli affari, i commerci, la politica. Suppongo che tu non lo sappia. E' per questo che tu sarai sempre infelice. Ti dirò io il perché: è così che le donne mettono al mondo bambini sani.
(pagina 125) ( )
  NewLibrary78 | Jul 22, 2023 |
This is Smith's second-most-important book. It is a follow-up to his Theory of Moral Sentiments, which underlies all the concepts in Wealth of Nations. ( )
  mykl-s | Dec 22, 2022 |
Long, boring, and dated. This book was clearly written for Smith's contemporaries, and consequently it consists of hardly anything but useless information. ( )
  celestialfarmer | Feb 1, 2021 |
A great book, but not for everyone. Amazing insights which are still as valid today as 1775 when the book was written.

Very detailed, great analysis and I really learned a lot from this book. Hard to read in sections, as it is written in very verbose, antiquated English.

I would recommend it if you are interested in Economics and want to gain a perspective from first principles. ( )
  rendier | Dec 20, 2020 |
Many of the examples are dated, yet I am astonished at how closely what he describes matches what goes on today. The one that really surprised me was his description of what we now call arbitrage. He wrote this at a time when simultaneous trading in different markets was impractical if not impossible.

"The idea of the possibility of multiplying paper money to almost any extent was the real foundation of what is called the Mississippi scheme, the most extravagant project, both of banking and stock-jobbing, that perhaps the world ever saw." (Page 204 of 619)

Bounties (encouragement of exportation) create a double taxation on the people. The principal benefit is to the importers and exporters. It also tends to devalue the currency and make the effects of lean years more severe. Tariffs often don't help those they are intended to help, and always hurt the welfare of the general public.

There is a lot about the economics of colonies, and more on monopolies being detrimental to the society. I am enjoying his comments about the state of various European and New World economies. One of the notable observations is that in the New World they get greater value from developing the land than from manufacturing because of the labor shortage caused by the ready availability of free or cheap land.

He went on at great length on various means of funding roads, and joint stock companies compared with private charters.

I was continually amazed at the breadth of material that he covered. He compared Greek, Roman, and European educational methods, with especially attention to who should pay for it; discussing the advantages and disadvantages of various means of funding education.

I was surprised to find quite a few pages describing the rise of Lutheran and Calvinistic doctrine. The established churches had grown (fat and lazy) and were not able to defend themselves against the upstarts, even though those in the established churches were better educated.

That last part covered a multitude of taxation schemes & analyzed their relative abilities to retard the economy.
( )
  bread2u | Jul 1, 2020 |
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3368716.html

I am not especially well versed in economics, so I had been looking forward to reading this classic text. I’m afraid I lasted only about a hundred pages. The content is all good and well argued, but Smith is not Gibbon (coincidentally, I had a distant cousin whose maiden name was Smyth and married a man whose name was Gibbon) and without the delights of Gibbon’s style, the detailed prose was a bit wearing, especially given my general state of mind, driven by the current situation; I am looking for comfort reading, not education at the moment. Some day I shall invest in a nice readable Economics 101 text book and educate myself properly in the dismal science, which I guess may also have moved on a bit since the eighteenth century. ( )
  nwhyte | May 3, 2020 |
2 v. ( )
  ME_Dictionary | Mar 19, 2020 |
This book is quite a beast, it took me a long while to finish it. Thankfully I can finally put it down. Initially I took it out of the Library, but was unable to finish it in time, so I kept it on my currently reading shelf for almost two years. Finally I went and purchased this particular version of it from Bantam Classics. I like this particular version because it has a text on the side of the regular text that paraphrases everything in the main body of the paragraph. It also has a footnote that might talk about something in the main text. It might have been put in by the editor of the book or by Smith himself.

In any case, this is Adam Smith's Magnum Opus. It has a longer title, but most people refer to it as the Wealth of Nations. It introduces the idea of laissez-faire capitalism and argues that given a set of people that are perfectly free, prices for items will naturally set themselves fairly due to a number of different factors. These factors are included in the book. Most of the book is a bit dry and old fashioned due to the fact that it was written in the eighteenth century, but most of the stuff he writes about does hold up in the present times. I had to look up quite a few words in the dictionary, such as "mundic." This takes you to all sorts of weird old-timey ideas, so I thought it was pretty fascinating.

I would read this book again. It is a bit challenging with the words chosen and the ideas put forth, and it is very long and dry in nature, but I found it to be entertaining. ( )
1 vote Floyd3345 | Jun 15, 2019 |
Published originally in 1776, this is the first book length study of political economy. But in addition to laying the theoretical groundwork for the field, it contains a lively account of economic history, and Smith’s opinions on monopolies, government economic policy, taxes, trade associations, and what he felt were the justices and injustices of the existing European polices and systems.

“It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.” Adam Smith. The Wealth of Nations Bk 5 Ch 2 Pt 2. ( )
  MaowangVater | Apr 27, 2019 |
This was a slog, even on Serial Reader. The first half was interesting, and there were some bits that were shockingly relevant—namely Smith’s commentary on how people concerned solely with making a profit should not be the ones running the show, because their self-interest is NOT in the public’s interest. The second half became tedious, with descriptions of commodity prices over the years and other subjects that made me lose interest. I am still glad to have tried it out, though, and if anyone’s going to be using Smith to support their arguments, they’d better damn well make sure they’ve actually read what he has to say. ( )
  rabbitprincess | Mar 17, 2019 |
A complicated, multi-layered, cognitive, and deep piece of work surrounding economics. Adam Smith denotes many different facets of the overall broad scope that he sweeps across. Hard to understand, and dense, but worth the read for anyone interested in the subject. The last sections were especially poignant to me. ( )
  DanielSTJ | Dec 17, 2018 |
History and Economy
This is a review of the audiobook. Adam Smith’s work is a reflection about the history and the economy of the europeans states in the XVIII century. The author laid his principles on economic analysis throughout an exposition of historical facts carefully chosen in order to demonstrate his main thesis: public and private wealth flourish in an environment of liberty. One must not be a specialist in economy to understand the book, though some knowledge of history helps to follow the author’s line of thought. The section of the book in which Adam Smith examines the role played by the americans colonies in the economic development of the europeans states is quite interesting and reminds me of Eduardo Galeano’s book, The Open Veins of Latin American. Despite the poor quality of the recording, the audiobook is worth listening. ( )
  MarcusBastos | Dec 20, 2017 |
The book is interesting and has many life examples that are applicable to the anyone's life. For instance, Smith mentions the way some people work. Overworking one day and then incapable to continue for several days in a row. I found this remark very helpful and applicable to my life. This is basically a book describing society.
Some of the examples with currency and numbers that he brings up extensively made me sleep at the moments. But, overall interesting historical fact and observations are still valid today. ( )
  Anatoly1988 | Oct 26, 2017 |
I just wanted to know what neoliberalism was, and ended up picking up this audiobook. In 1776, the economy was already quite complex, it turns out. I also enjoyed the description of the first types of money in the times of the Roman Empire. For example, copper rods. They had certain properties: were standard, durable, and could be cut in smaller pieces.

The book is long, but most of its bulk is filled with examples that Adam Smith gave to illustrate his examples. I suppose it's because the book was revolutionary for his times, and he needed all the supporting evidence he could get. ( )
1 vote automatthias | Jun 19, 2017 |
Overall, this was an informative read; not for its economic insightfulness but for how its supporters use Smith's theories. There are some basic economic truths and a lot of tedious detail but what is really telling are the outdated ideas and the sweeping generalizations which have carried over to our contemporary economic discussions. ( )
  jimocracy | Apr 18, 2015 |
One of the most influential books ever. I wish more neo-cons and ultra capitalist would read it. Smith espouses some government involvement in regulating business enterprises. No! Really! Why, that sounds like Marxism! Bull. He surveyed the economies of the world, surveyed assembly of products, reviewed the balance of trade, the influence gold has on national debt, the problem of inflation and other standard economic issues. He was very insightful and should be taught in every high school economic class. The foundation for studying any economic activity should begin with Smith. ( )
  JVioland | Jul 14, 2014 |
I'm a libertarian, and I love economics. But I found Smith hard to get through. Aside from some of his more spirited arguments, such as the famous butcher/baker/whatever the third one is analogy, a lot of this book seemed like dead weight to me. As with many possibly great books, though, it may be a case of failing to appreciate its greatness because it has come to dominate subsequent thought and hence is already familiar in its essence to me.
  Audacity88 | Feb 7, 2014 |
According to the introduction Adam Smith was the “first modern economist” and “widely credited with laying the theoretical and philosophical foundation for the modern free market system” and “commercial society." He famously wrote that "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." And that by pursuing their own interest in competition with others, entrepreneurs are “led by an invisible hand” by economic forces to create a variety of goods and services that benefit the public. But even Karl Marx used ideas of Smith in arguing for communism--particularly his key idea of the labor theory of value can be traced to Smith--as was Marx's idea of the “alienation” of the worker. As the introduction put it, Smith was concerned about the “deformation of humans due to tedious and repetitive work.” He was also concerned about how business interests would use their potential monopoly power--particularly in how they might use politics against the consumer:

The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this [business] order, ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention.

What struck me from the first about the book was how flowing and lucid it was to read. I’m not saying there aren’t difficult, dry passages--there are. But if you take the time, it is understandable without reading some Adam Smith for Dummies, and believe me, having read several books of philosophy and economics I appreciated that. And actually I found a lot of the reading quite lively. Like Darwin (and unlike Marx), Smith isn’t just erudite and well-read, but speaks of his personal observations, and in that regard his portrait of a pin-making factory and how it illustrates the efficiencies of the division of labor was very memorable. For Smith such specialization and the gains in productivity are key to the wealth of nations. And I found it interesting Smith stresses geography, not race, as the ultimate reason for differences of wealth between nations--particularly its role in access to markets as there ports and navigable rivers are crucial. An explanation not just enlightened for his time, but anticipating much-lauded recent arguments by Landes in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and Diamond in Guns, Germs and Steel. Smith’s explanation of the formation and role of money still is among the most lucid and still rings true.

All this is to say that Smith is quite readable and enormously influential, and thus well-worth the read. If anything might put a reader off, it’s the sheer length, since complete unabridged editions run to around 600 pages. And as I admit above, I’m not saying some of it isn’t a slog--just that it’s worth it if you want to educate yourself about the basis of modern economics; this is definitely where to start. At the very least, see if you can read an excerpt containing his description of a Pin Factory. It's clear, interesting, short, and influenced both free market and socialist thinkers. ( )
1 vote LisaMaria_C | Sep 2, 2013 |
The book that launched a thousand theories. Mr.Smith over explains some of them like the price theory. Interesting view of the world of those times. ( )
  charlie68 | Mar 28, 2013 |
Vast, rambling, dated, and yet compelling. As a founding tome of the study of economics, many of the ideas in this book have become familiar through diffusion into the discourse of everyday life. However, to see them set out in their historical context (admittedly, occasionally too much historical context) gives them a freshness and a real insight into how great the advances made by Smith really were. As elaborated here, his ideas have a richness and humanity which is often missing from the concepts when reduced to their most compact form.
It is illuminating to reflect on both how much of this work is still relevant, and how much has been overturned by modern societies. The admonitions against government indebtedness have a certain resonance with current events, even as the detailed analysis of the price of corn in the various cities of Europe has become antiquated due to the passage of time - and, vitally, the increased ease of movement in the modern world. This upsets some of the assumptions of the work, and it will also be interesting to see to what extent mass customisation overturns certain other assumptions about the efficacy of capital-intensive mass production. That these questions can be asked within the framework of a book dating back so far is testament to the soundness of its basic ideas.
Worth reading if you've ever partaken in a capitalist society, or are thinking of doing so. ( )
  gbsallery | Oct 14, 2012 |
What more is there to say about a book that's been around 233 years? That's considered to be the founding text of modern economics? Written by a man who has organizations and lectures named after him, whose name is synonymous with free markets?

Well, the following is a list of things not generally talked about - in my casual exposure to economics - in regards to this work.

Smith, not surprisingly for a man of the Enlightenment, was a blank slate guy. The philosopher, we're told, differs from the porter "not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education". Smith's professional progeny, with less justification and an autistic-like inability to model human nature, has largely kept the notion of people as malleable economic units whose value can simply be altered by some inputs of education.

This is a book on the wealth of nations, not an argument for how trade is going to pacify the world and render borders obsolete as is the gospel sometimes preached - for at least a hundred years - by advocates of globalization. While Smith acknowledges that wealthy countries make great trading partners, he also notes their wealth makes them "dangerous in war and politics". (He also makes a not entirely unconvincing argument for standing armies being necessary. Part of it rests on the general efficacy of the specialization of labor.)

He also makes some, on the face of it, surprising digressions into what sort of established church should be supported and if public education is worthwhile - all under the section on how the government should be spending its money. He's not big on established churches but thinks they are inevitable unless a country has no tradition of them - like the American colonies who were just rebelling in the "recent disturbances" at the time of the book's publication. (Though, of course, individual colonies did have established churches.) He's a supporter of everyone being educated to a certain minimum degree. Indeed, he seems to argue for a sort of licensure system in which people, before entering economic life, have to prove a minimum standard of education. But he is skeptical of public financing and administration being able to do this. And, given the state of American public education in all its aspects, his skepticism sometimes seems still relevant and appropriate.

While Smith is rightly considered a strong advocate of free trade - a large section of the book is a demolition of the then fashionable mercantile system with its attendant emphasis on gold and silver as something more than just merely convenient mediums of exchange, he does note some objections. In an age where the US Pentagon admits some of its supply chains disappear somewhere overseas, Smith's admonition that free trade should not hamper national defense seems forgotten. "Defence" notes Smith, "... is of much more importance than opulence." Smith also is not in favor of free trade for items that are taxed by the importing country. Tariffs, he argues, should equal the tax load on the native manufacturer. He also supports retaliatory tariffs, a gradual elimination of tariffs, and notes that free trade should not proceed if those it unemploys can not easily find other employment. Historically, using the argument of the re-employment of thousands of soldiers and seamen after demobilization, he doesn't see this as usually being a problem though.

Smith states four maxims of good tax policy: each citizen paying in proportion to the property the state protects and enables the accumulation of , convenience of payments, certainty of amount and time of payment, convenience of payment, and economy of collection. He seems, at one point, to argue for hidden taxes on luxury consumer goods - the goods that social custom does not dictate are essential to the lives of even the lowest class.

What isn't in the book is any sort of mention of monetary policy - governments attempting to manipulate economies by manipulating money supplies. And one also wonders what Smith would have thought of the notion of a service economy. To Smith, productive labor was only that which increased the tangible, material property of a society. No significant mention is made of the idea of intellectual property yet he notes that "philosophers or men of speculation" have invented machines that have increased production of goods.

Is Smith readable? Largely, yes. The marginal annotations of the Cannan edition are very good and help easily follow Smith's arguments and find relevant sections. There is a reason there are many famous quotes from this book. Smith is usually a lucid - and occasionally wry - author. Even though he digresses into some less - at least to me - interesting topics like the history of the Bank of Amsterdam or the specifics of Britain's deficit financing in the early 18th century, his economic history is often interesting. I don't know how kind modern scholarship has been to his economic theories on European social development post-Roman Empire and the reasons for the Reformation, but they were interesting and not implausible. He also has an section on the pragmatic reasons why slavery was not conducive to the economic development of societies.

Smith's work is largely known for being an extended apologia for the benefits of enlightened self-interest. George Stigler, in a preface that ably sums up Smith's main points, convincingly argues - though the debt is not explicit in the text - that it isn't exactly self-interest, and not socialism's and communism's essential and necessary altruism, that motivates economic efficiency. It's the private vices that become public benefits. It's a notion developed in Smith's The Theory Of Moral Sentiments and may stem from Mandeville's The Fable of the Bees: Or Private Vices, Publick Benefits. ( )
4 vote RandyStafford | Feb 23, 2012 |
  JamesBoswell | Nov 16, 2011 |
Adam Smith revolutionized the study of economics with the publication in 1776 of his epic tome, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. His analysis of how capital and labor move in an economy completely changed how people thought about money and how governments regulated the markets.

The first book of The Wealth of Nations reads much like any basic economics textbook would today. Smith opens with a discussion of specialization its importance to economic growth. He does not extend his argument, as modern economists would, beyond the subject of individual specialization to a broader discussion of comparative advantage and national specialization, but he does anticipate where future economists would take his argument when he discusses tariffs. Smith argues that is unwise to tax cheaper goods being imported to Britain and that the British should instead concentrate on exporting goods it can make more cheaply than its trade partners. This initial introduction to the concept of comparative advantage flew in the face of centuries of mercantilist thinking, in which trade was a matter of winners and losers and it was impossible for a country to enrich itself through trade without impoverishing other nations.

Beyond essentially inventing modern economic thought, Adam Smith’s greatest contribution was the concept of the Invisible Hand, a force that moves people, through their own self-interest, to engage in commerce that will benefit society as a whole. In fact, it is often possible for people to contribute more to society through greed and an attempt to profit, than through pure altruism. Profit opportunities are created by market inefficiencies and, by seeking to maximize their profits, entrepreneurs will attempt to capitalize on these profit opportunities and will fix these inefficiencies, often without understanding what they are doing.

While Smith is certainly a fan of letting markets and entrepreneurs work freely he is not a proponent of laissez-faire economics. He is very distrustful of corporations and argues that the biggest potential downfall of any economic system is collusion between businesses to drive prices up. He believes that a watchful eye needs to be kept on all businesses and that the government needs to be careful in making policies that might favor one firm over another.

There is so much more that could be said about The Wealth of Nations, but it should be sufficient to say that any person interested in economics owes it to themselves to read at least the first book of Smith’s work. They may have been revolutionary at the time, but his ideas laid the foundation for the entire field of economics and it remains relevant today. ( )
  tjwilliams | Dec 7, 2010 |
As I think I noted elsewhere, i was struck by the fact that Smith seemed more physiocratic rather than free-enterprise; his real opponent was what we would now call "crony capitalism" --businessmen manipulating government for their own profit. ( )
  antiquary | Mar 15, 2010 |
Showing 1-25 of 38 (next | show all)

Legacy Library: Adam Smith

Adam Smith has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.

See Adam Smith's legacy profile.

See Adam Smith's author page.

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.94)
0.5
1 8
1.5
2 17
2.5 4
3 100
3.5 8
4 144
4.5 17
5 133

Liberty Fund, Inc

An edition of this book was published by Liberty Fund, Inc.

» Publisher information page

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,225,761 books! | Top bar: Always visible