WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,

AN INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE, NOTES, AND
SUPPLEMENTAL DISSERTATIONS.

BY J. R. McCULLOCH, ESQ.

A NEW EDITION,

CORRECTED THROUGHOUT AND GREATLY ENLARGED.

PRINTED FOR ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK,
AND WILLIAM TAIT, EDINBURGH;

AND LONGMAN & CO., LONDON.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

SINCE 1784, when Dr. Smith put the last hand to the Wealth of Nations, the science of which it treats has made a rapid progress. The shock given by the French Revolution to old systems and prejudices, the stimulus it imparted to the public mind in every part of the civilised world, and the wars and convulsions to which it led, produced a nearly total change in the internal organisation and foreign policy of many powerful states. The oppressive fetters that clogged and embarrassed industry in France, Germany, and Italy, the feudal privileges of the nobility, and the immunities enjoyed by the clergy of these countries in the days of Dr. Smith, have been mostly swept away. Representative governments, formed on the model of that of England, have been established in France, Holland, Belgium, and some other continental states; and the downfall of the old colonial system, and the emancipation of America, have enabled her inhabitants to avail themselves of all the advantages of their situation, and to enter, with the spirit and energy inspired by freedom, on the career of improvement.

Nowhere, however, have the events of the last half century produced more interesting results than in Great Britain. We have not, indeed been overrun by foreign armies, and continue to enjoy that free system of government to which we are mainly indebted for our prosperity. But the struggle pro aris et focis in which we were so long engaged, and the changes in the situation of the surrounding nations, have had a powerful influence over our condition; and have furnished abundant materials for the investigations of practical and speculative politicians. The vast increase of the public debt and taxes; the restrictions on the importation of foreign corn; the suspension of cash payments at the Bank of England in 1797, and their resumption in 1819; the prodigious growth of the manufacturing population of Great Britain, and of the agricultural population of Ireland; the rapid increase of the poor rates since 1795; and a variety of other topics of nearly equal importance, have excited, and will long continue to excite, the anxious attention of the legislature and the public. Few periods of equal duration have ever been so pro

ductive of great events; and the economists of the present day have to trace the causes and consequences of many highly interesting phenomena which had not exhibited themselves in the age of Dr. Smith.

Under these circumstances, it would have been singular, indeed, had not large additions been made to the science of wealth. Its paramount and growing importance in a national point of view, and the new combinations of circumstances that have arisen, have roused the attention of the ablest men in England and generally throughout Europe, and stimulated them to engage in its investigations. The result has been, that several leading principles, which either escaped the attention of Dr. Smith, or were only incidentally alluded to by him, have been discovered and established; and that some of those to which he has given his sanction have been found to be partially, and a few wholly, unsound.

It is obvious, too, considering the lengthened period that has elapsed since the publication of the Wealth of Nations, that many of those gradual changes that necessarily occur in the progress of society, must have taken place; and would, independently altogether of any extraordinary events, render not a few of the references made by Dr. Smith to facts and circumstances connected with the condition and policy of this and other countries, quite inapplicable at present.

Still, however, the great and distinguishing merits of the Wealth of Nations continue unimpaired. Nothing of importance has been added to the masterly exposition given in it of the benefits arising from the freedom of industry and even those parts that are least sound as to principle, uniformly abound in the most sagacious remarks and disquisitions, and are illustrated with unrivalled skill and felicity. It is hardly possible, in fact, to supersede such a work. In particular parts it might be improved; but as a whole it has so many excellences, and such a well founded celebrity, that it will doubtless continue for a very long period, to be the fountain whence succeeding economists must draw inspiration

A quo, ceu fonte perenni,
Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis.

Such being the case, it appeared to the Editor that he might advantageously employ himself in the publication of an edition of the Wealth of Nations that should embody such remarks and additions as might make it more suitable to the existing state of things, and more on a level with the progress made in the science since the period when it was published. What he has attempted in furtherance of this object may be thus briefly stated:

I. The majority of those who refer to any work of authority or celebrity being anxious to learn something of the author, a sketch is given of the Life of Dr. Smith. This is principally abridged from Dugald