Economics Terms from Scotland to Italy: the First Italian Translations of Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1790/91-1851), in F. Forman (ed.), The Adam Smith Review, vol. 13 (1st ed.), New York: Routledge and Taylor Francis Book

Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations has always been recognized as the first economic treatise that systematized political economy comprehensively by replacing mercantilist and physiocratic theories at the dawning of the Industrial Revolution. The most recent studies on Smith’s translations have been carried out so far by economic historians, whose research on this field has worthily traced the influence of Smith’s thought across time, countries and continents. The spread of Smith’s original works and translations in France also reflected the cultural activity of the country and its participation in the Enlightenment debates. Presumably, the Neapolitan translator was likely interested in spreading Smith’s ideas in the Neapolitan intellectual environment quickly, so he found it easier to rely on Blavet’s French translation rather than find the right translation equivalence between English and Italian.