ABSTRACT
In 1792, Martínez de Irujo published a Compendio de la obra inglesa intitulada Riqueza de las naciones, hecho por el Marques de Condorcet, based on the French synthesis of Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (WN) published in Bibliothèque de l’homme. This chapter has a twofold purpose: (1) to compare the French and the Spanish text, pointing out the changes that Martínez de Irujo introduced in order to avoid censorship by the Spanish authorities; (2) to question the authorship of the French text that Martínez de Irujo ascribed to Condorcet. The contemporary literature has taken this attribution to Condorcet for granted, especially since R.S. Smith confirmed it in his work “The Wealth of Nations in Spain and Hispanic America” (1957a). Such a reconstruction seems to show some weaknesses, above all, for neglecting the major role of Antoine Roucher, author of a full French translation of the WN.
