My mistake...

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

The passage I cited below is from a later editorial comment on
Quesnay's influence on Smith, not from Smith himself.

Geoff Nunberg

>
>"Capitalist"  actually appears in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations
>(1776), in the discussion of Quesnay: "Hence with the aid of the
>common observation that where a capitalist appears, labourers soon
>spring up, he arrived at the view that the amount of capital in a
>country determines the number of 'useful and productive' labourers.
>Finally he slipped into his theory of prices and their component
>parts the suggestion that as the price of any one commodity is
>divided between wages, profits and rent, so the whole produce is
>divided between labourers, capitalists, and landlords."
>
>This, like the first (1792) cite in the OED (from Young's _Travels
>in France_), is an anglicization of the French 'capitaliste', which
>Alain Rey dates from 1755 in the sense "personne qui possede un
>capitale." But it's very odd that the OED doesn't have it, since
>you'd figure Murray would have taken pains to see that Smith was
>combed over very carefully, particularly for this sort of vocabulary.
>
>Geoff Nunberg
>
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>>Subject:      Antedating of "Capitalist"
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>capitalist (OED 1792)
>>
>>1791 Alexander Hamilton _Report of the secretary of the Treasury of the
>>United States, on the subject of manufactures. Presented to the House of
>>Representatives, December 5, 1791_ 22 (Evans Digital Edition)  When the
>>manufacturing capitalist of Europe shall advert to the many important
>>advantages, which have been intimated, in the course of this report, he
>>cannot but perceive very powerful inducements to a transfer of himself and
>>his capital to the United States.
>>
>>Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
>>Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>>   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
>>Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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>