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Why is 'market' not in the index of the Wealth of Nations'? Perhaps because 
Smith used the word a lot, but not as a well defined concept which an index 
entry might reasonably point to. The word appears frequently in the phrase 
'to bring to market', meaning to offer for sale, and in 'market price'. The 
division of labour, of course, depends on the extent of the market, and 
similarly Smith often wrote about the home market, the foreign market, 
distant markets, 'a great and ready market'. He sometimes talks about the 
state of the market and about advantageous and confined markets. He did not 
have any theoretical concept like (say) a perfectly competitive market, nor 
did he use the word to describe a form of organisation (as someone now 
might be said to be 'pro-market'). He used the phrase 'free market' once 
only (according to my search engine), talking about 'an open and free 
market' in wool. An index entry pointing to such inconsequential uses on a 
huge number of pages wouldn't be very useful. 
 
Tony Brewer  
 
 
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