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

Dublin: Printed by N. Kelly and William Porter, for P. Wogan, Gilbert and Hodges, W. Porter, J. Moore, and B. Dornin,, 1801. Political economy and the Anglo-Irish union Fourth Irish edition of the "first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" (PMM), in a handsome contemporary Irish binding. Towards the end of the Wealth of Nations, Smith outlines an expansive and audacious plan for the political-economic consolidation of the British Empire. In this plan, Ireland was to be united with Great Britain in a move largely modelled on the Anglo-Scottish union of 1707. Smith stresses the political and economic benefits to the Irish, anticipating that the move would end British trade restrictions and even neutralize the fractious nature of Irish politics. Ironically, Smith's wider theories of political economy in the Wealth of Nations were often co-opted by Irishmen diametrically opposed to his political proposals, most notably the United Irishman Arthur O'Connor (1763-1852), whose approach to democratic land reform was "a radicalised version of Smith's political economy" (Andersen). The United Irishmen mounted a rebellion in 1798, the failure of which led to precisely the Anglo-Irish union advocated by Smith. This fourth Irish edition was the first to be published in the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 vols, octavo (204 x 131 mm), pp. xiii, [1], 498; viii, 489. [61]; lacking blank A1 in vol. II. Tables in the text. Contemporary red straight-grain sheep, spines lettered, ruled, and decorated in gilt, covers panelled in gilt, marbled endpapers. With 1824 prize inscription in Latin to fourth blank of vol. I. Extremities refurbished, light scuffing, faint sunning to spines, minor foxing and offsetting to contents, leaf P6 of vol. II with 7 cm closed tear, touching text: a very good copy. Kress B.4448; Tribe 75; Vanderblue, p. 20. L. S. Andersen, "The Political Economy of Ireland and Its Counterfactuals: Review of James Strafford The Case of Ireland: Commerce, Empire and the European Order, 1750-1848 (CUP, 2022)", History of European Ideas, vol. 50, no. 1, 2023.