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222.: To THOMAS CADELL - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

Edition used:

Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


222.

To THOMAS CADELL

  • Address: Mr Thomas Cadell, Bookseller, over against Catharine Street, Strand, London

MS., Hyde Collection, Four Oaks Farm, RFD 3, Somerville, New Jersey: Mrs. Donald F. Hyde; Rae 362.

Edinburgh, 7 Dec. 1782

Dear Sir

I have many apologies to make to you for my Idleness since I came to Scotland. The truth is, I bought at London a good many, partly new books, and partly either new editions of old books, or editions that were new to me; and the amusement I found in reading and diverting myself with them debauched me from my proper business; the preparing a new edition of the Wealth of nations. I am now, however, heartily engaged at my proper work and I hope in two or three months to send you up the second Edition corrected in many places, with three or four very considerable additions; chiefly to the second volume; among the rest is a short, but I flatter myself, a compleat History of all the trading companies in G. Britain. These Additions, I mean not only to be inserted at their proper places into the new edition, but to be printed separately and to be sold for a shilling, or half a Crown, to the purchasers of the old Edition.1 The price must depend upon the bulk of the Additions when they are all written out. It would give me great satisfaction if you would let me know by the return of the Post if this delay will not be inconvenient. Remember me to Strahan. He will be so good as to excuse my not writing to him as I have nothing to say to him but what I have now said to you; and he knows my aversion to writing. I ever am

Dear Sir Most faithfully yours

Adam Smith

[1 ]Considerable differences exist between WN ed. 2 (1778) and ed. 3 (1784), The Advertisement to ed. 3 refers to ‘additions . . . to the chapter on Drawbacks, and to that upon Bounties; likewise a new chapter entitled, The Conclusion of the Mercantile System; and a new article to the chapter upon the expences. In all these additions, the present state of things means always the state in which they were during the year 1783 and the beginning of the present year 1784.’ The references to the additions are:

    6th Cannan ed. 1950Glasgow WN
‘Conclusion of the Mercantile System’ii. 159–81IV.viii
‘of the Public Works . . .’ii. 253–82V.i.d–e
‘absurdity of restrictions on trade with France’i. 496–7; 521–2IV.iii.a.1, IV.iii.c.12–13
on various drawbacksii. 3–7IV.iv.3–11
herring fishing bountyii. 24–8IV.v.a.28–37.
appendix on the sameii. 487–9Appendix
portion of discussion of effects of the corn bountyii. 13–14IV.v.a.8–9

These passages and others were published on 20 Nov. 1784 as ‘Additions and Corrections to the First and Second Editions of Dr Adam Smith’s Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’. See Letter 223 from Cadell, dated 12 Dec. 1782, and Letter 227 addressed to William Strahan, dated 22 May 1783, also Letter 231 addressed to William Strahan, dated 6 Oct. 1783, and Glasgow WN 62–3.