Economics trailblazer at auction

A RARE first edition of Adam Smith’s most famous work, The Wealth of Nations, is expected to fetch up to £45,000 at auction.

Smith, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, published the first major work of political economics while living in London in 1776.

The book had taken the Enlightenment philosopher almost 10 years to write at his mother’s home in Kirkcaldy, but it earned him the title “the father of modern economics”.

The rare copy will be among the highlights of Bonhams’ sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts in London on March 1.

Matthew Haley, from Bonhams, said: “The Wealth of Nations is the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought.”