Historedia
Person

David Hume

Events
1
Episodes
6
Years
1776–1792

Every event in Historedia whose sources name David Hume, with the role they cite and all of that event’s episodes. This is not a biography, and mentions are grouped by name, so two people with the same name can share this page.

Events and episodes

  1. Publication of The Wealth of Nations

    1776–1792

    Role: contemporary commentator on the book's reception

    1. 1776–1778 · British literary debateContemporary Criticism over the East India Company

      In the 1778 second edition of his poem's introduction, Mickle attacked Smith's laissez-faire doctrines on the East India Company question.

    2. 1776–1789 · British publishingLater Editions in Smith's Lifetime

      Five editions appeared during Smith's lifetime; the 1784 third edition added an index for the first time and incorporated his Additions and Corrections.

    3. date unknown · later history of economic thoughtMarxian and Liberal Reception

      Marx called the book the true Bible of eighteenth-century classical political economy, while Marxian economics critiqued the tradition it founded.

    4. 9 March 1776 · place of publication not attested in supplied passagesPublication of The Wealth of Nations

      Smith's treatise appeared on 9 March 1776 in two volumes, the culmination of roughly a decade of work and his central intellectual project.

    5. 12 April 1776 – 1778 · British political and literary circlesEarly Reception and Hume's Assessment

      Within weeks of publication, David Hume reportedly judged the book too demanding to become as popular as Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

    6. 17 February 1792 · House of CommonsParliamentary and Political Influence

      William Pitt praised the treatise in the Commons in 1792, and it was quoted by Whitbread, Fox, and Wilberforce in debates that year.

Sources

  1. The Wealth of Nations Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-21