in 1778 to have his office in the customs added to his other distinctions and consequently appears on the titlepage as “Adam Smith, LL.D. and F.R.S. of London and Edinburgh: one of the commissioners of his Majesty’s Customs in Scotland; and formerly professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow.” The imprint is “London: printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell, in the Strand.” This edition was sold at one guinea. Prefixed to it is the following “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 state of things is mentioned, it is to be understood of the state they were in, either about that time, or at some earlier period, during the time I was employed in writing the Book. To this third Edition, however, I have made several additions, particularly to the chapter upon 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 expenses of the sovereign. 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.”
Comparing the second and the third editions we find that the additions to the third are considerable. As the Preface or “Advertisement” just quoted remarks, the chapter entitled “Conclusion of the Mercantile System” ( vol. ii , pp. 141–60) is entirely new, and so is the section “Of the Public Works and Institutions which are necessary for facilitating particular Branches of Commerce” ( vol. ii , pp. 223–48). Certain passages in Book IV , chapter iii , on the absurdity of the restrictions on trade with France ( vol. i , pp. 437–8 and 459–60), the three pages near