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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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