Hi,



I don't believe this secondary source below negates any of the information posted so far, but does provide a rather different picture of how WN was received by Smith's contemporaries.



Sumitra Shah



Quotation from  a review of two books by Campbell and Skinner and Skinner and Wilson: Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Author(s): Donald White Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1976), pp. 715-720



"It is also true that Smith's position seems to be secure, in textbooks at any rate, as the "Father of Political Economy." Certainly Wealth of Nations was an influential book and a genuinely popular one. Reading Smith's windy periods today, it is rather difficult to appreciate why his contemporaries admired his literary style, as well as his opinions, but they obviously did. Wealth of Nations went through five editions in Smith's lifetime, totaling over 5000 copies. The first edition sold out in six months.



T. H. Buckle in his History of Civilization in England (1857) mentions that Wealth of Nations was cited favorably in Parliament no fewer than thirty-seven times between 1783 and the turn of the century. Further, it is possible that the Tory government of Lord North appointed Smith, a Whig, to the lucrative position of Commissioner of Customs for Scotland (in 1778) because of the inspiration for new taxes North got from The Wealth of Nations."



For the last conjecture, the author gives this reference:  H. Mizuta, Adam Smith's Library (Cambridge, 1967).