List May 2024

Early Italian banking

Banco di Santo Ambrosio.
Delle leggi, contratti, et governo del Banco Santo Ambrosio della citta di Milano, stabiliti nella congregatione de' Signori Gouernatori di detto Banco. Il giorno di Lunedi, li due del mese d'Aprile M.D.CI. Accetati, & confermati dal Conseglio Generale de' Signori Sessanta di detta città. Giovedi 12. Luglio di detto anno.
In Milano, per Pandolfo Malatesta [1601].
4to. 36,[11 patent by Juan de Velasco]p. Title with woodcut device of the bank, and several woodcut initials and ornaments in the text. Contemp. carta rustica. Printed on fine paper. (#31168)
€ 3000

First edition. One of the earliest printed documents relating to public banking. It contains the statutes, by-laws and governance of the Bank as well as details about its establishment.
The Banco Santo Ambrosio was one of the earliest public banks, established in 1598 upon the theories of Giovanni Antonio Zerbi. Zerbi was a Milanese merchant who had studied the Spanish and Sicilian banks and especially the bank of San Giorgio of Genoa. He published his theories on banking in 1599 as Discorso in forma di dialogo intorno al Banco S. Ambrosio della citta di Milano. Unfortunately the results of the bank were unsatisfactory and it was almost bankrupt in 1630.
*Goldsmiths'-Kress 00305.1. Kress 238. Kress, Italian 99. Palgrave III,p.691 (Zerbi).

A landmark in the history of of social liberation, praised by Marx

BELLERS, John (1654–1725)
Proposals for raising a College of Industry of all useful trades and husbandry, with profit for the rich, a plentiful living for the poor; and a good education for youth. Which will be advantage to the government, by the increase of the people, and their riches.
London, printed and sold by T.Sowle 1696.
Small 4to. [II],28p. Nineteenth-century half calf, back with gilt-lettered red label, marbled sides. Mild browning, upper margin closely trimmed, just touching a few page numbers. Armorial bookplate of the Macclesfield North Library 1860. (#30070)
€ 3750

Second edition, with some substantial alterations, first published the previous year. A famous publication in the history of social liberation. It was a source of inspiration for Robert Owen, who published a new edition of it in 1818, and was highly praised by Karl Marx.
Perhaps inspired by Plockhoy's A way propounded to make the poor in these and other nations happy (1659) Bellers here designs a complete plan for the organization of industry and labour. He proposes the founding of ‘colleges of industry', agricultural and manufacturing co-operative settlements to enable the poor to care for themselves. Colonies of at least 300 people would have collective capital and labour, and not money but labour would be the standard of value, thus giving a draught for a labour theory of value. Family life would be private - he therefore uses the term colleges rather than communities - and much attention would be paid to education. It would be beneficial to the poor, enabling them to care for themselves, as well as to the rich and the state, no longer forced to support the poor.
Marx refers to Bellers in Das Kapital several times. He calls Bellers ‘a very phenomenon in the history of Political Economy, [who] saw most clearly at the end of the 17th century, the necessity for abolishing the present system of education and division of labour, which beget hypertrophy and atrophy at the two opposite extremities of society'.
*Wing B1830. Kress 1932. Goldsmiths' 3369. McCulloch p.275.

BENTHAM, Jeremy (1748-1822)
Chrestomathia: being a collection of papers, explanatory of the design of an institution, proposed to be set on foot, under the name of The Chrestomathic Day School, or chrestomathic school, for the extension of the new system of instruction to the higher branches of learning, for the use of the middling and higher ranks of life. [Bound with:] Chrestomathia. Part II. Containing appendix, No. V. Being an essay on nomenclature and classification.
London, printed for Messrs. Payne and Foss and R.Hunter. By J.M'Creery 1816-16.
2 parts in 1 volume. [II],XXI,[3],IX-X,68,24,69-98; IV,99-347p. With 2 folding tables in part 1. Nineteenth- or early twentieth-century half cloth, back lettered gilt, marbled sides. Bookplate of Sidney Broad to front paste-down. (#30826)
€ 900

First published edition of the first part, together with the very rare pre-publication issue of the second part. The Chrestomathia is Bentham's major book in the field of education. It was written with the purpose to apply utilitarian principles on instruction and higher education. As present education seemed to have become 'irrelevant to the life of the middle class' Bentham wanted to design a scheme for the reform of educational policy, both as regards form and content.
This pre-publication of the second part is of extreme rarity, it was first published the next year.

BENTHAM, Jeremy (1748-1822)
Draught of a new plan for the organisation of the judicial establishment in France: proposed as a succedaneum to the draught presented, for the same purpose, by the Committee of Constitution, to the National Assembly, December 21st, 1789.
No place, no publisher March 1790.
[II],26p. Fine modern boards, back with gilt-lettered red label. Upper margin closely trimmed, touching the pagination in places. (#39116)
€ 750

First edition. The first part only of Bentham's draught for a new French constitution, made up as an alternative for the constitution proposed by the French National Assembly. It contains the draught itself and ‘was one of the first signs of the conversion of Bentham towards more democratic views'. Six more elaborating instalments appeared the following months.
‘The news that the Constitutional Committee had submitted on 21 December 1789 to the National Assembly a draught plan for a new judicial system prompted Bentham to prepare and print in instalments his own Draught of a new plan for organisation of the judicial establishment in France. Instalments, translated by Dumont, began to appear in the Courier de Province for 22-23 May and continued to do so until May. At the beginning of April he addressed a letter to the President of the National Assembly, and one hundred copies of the parts so far printed in England were sent to Paris through the French minister in London, François Barthélemy.'
*Chuo D6-1.

BENTHAM, Jeremy (1748-1822)
"Swear not at all:" containing an exposure of the needlessness and mischievousness, as well as antichristianity, of the ceremony of an oath: a view of the parliamentary recognition of its needlessness, implied in the practice of both Houses: and an indication of the unexceptionable securities, by which whatsoever practical good purposes the ceremony has been employed to serve would be more effectually provided for. Together with proof of the open and persevering contempt of moral and religious principle, perpetuated by it, and rendered universal, in the two Church-of-England Universities; more especially in the University of Oxford. Pre-detached from An introduction to the rationale of evidence.
London, sold by R.Hunter 1817.
[IV],97,[1 corrigenda],[1 advert.]. Uncut in fine recent half calf, back lettered gilt, marbled sides. (#39564)
€ 450

First published edition. This was originally printed in 1813 for private circulation only. It was written to expose the mischief arising from the laws relating to the administration of oaths. Bentham declares that the promissory oath ‘could prevent a man from doing what he knew to be right, and could afford him a ready excuse for the commission of some wrong'.
Among the mischiefs produced by the swearing of oaths treated by Bentham are ‘contributing to the mendacity-licence granted by judges, weakening in various ways the efficiency of the laws, bewildering and enslaving the consciences of jurymen, giving aid and force to the enterprises of malefactors, furnishing pretence for misrule by abuse of prerogative, corrupting the national morals and understanding'.
*Chuo S6.2. Goldsmiths' 21988.

Best edition of the ‘first modern attempt to create a complete system of political science '

BODIN, Jean (1530-1596)
De republica libri sex, latine ab autore redditi, multo quam antea locupletiores.
Lugduni, et venundantur Parisiis, apud Jacobum Du-Puys [Lyon and Paris, Dupuys] 1586.
Folio (35 x 22,5 cm). [VIII],779,[61]p. With printer's vignette on title, coat of arms on verso and several head- and tail-pieces and decorated initials. Contemp. blind-tooled calf, little rubbed, back expertly repaired, red edges. Small brown stain in upper left corner, far from printed surface, disappearing halfway. (#23549)
€ 6000

First Latin edition, first issue. This Latin edition was translated by Bodin himself. For the translation he made numerous improvements and additions and it is therefore considered the standard edition. The first edition appeared in French in 1576 and was many times reprinted until the beginning of the seventeenth century, and translated into German, English, Italian and Spanish.
‘The Six books of the republic had an immense influence all over Europe. It is, in effect, the first modern attempt to create a complete system of political science. Its basis was the Politics of Aristotle, and it was through Bodin that Aristotle's work came to exercise the influence on modern political thinking which has made him the father of modern democracy. Bodin was not content merely to reproduce his master, however; he added considerably from his own experience. Although like most sixteenth-century writers he approved of absolute government, he demanded its control by constitutional laws, in which respect he foreshadowed the development during the seventeenth century of the idea of the social contract. Thus Bodin was the first to set out clearly the argument round which most political discussion centred in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that law is merely an expression of the sovereign will, but that where this reposes in an absolute monarch, it must be mitigated by a customary or natural law. When the lawgiver's law becomes unjust, it ceases to be valid and must be resisted.'
First provenance: Thomas Foley, with his armorial bookplate to verso of title ‘Thomas Foley of Great Witley Court in the County of Worcester Esqr.', and identical but smaller bookplate with only ‘Foley' to front paste-down. Probably the ironmaster and Member of Parliament Thomas Foley (1616-1677).
Second provenance: Inscribed on front free endpaper: ‘Herman Heller/ with warm regards/ Harold J.Laski'. Herman Heller (1891-1933), German legal scholar who went into exile in 1933. Harold Joseph Laski (1893-1950), English political theorist and economist. Below the inscription two illegible lines.
*R.Crahay, M.T.Isaac & M.T.Lenger, Bibliographie critique des éditions anciennes de Jean Bodin L1a. Printing and the mind of man 94. En français dans le texte 68.

[BOESNIER DE L'ORME, Paul (1724-1793)]
Du rétablissement de l'impot dans son ordre naturel.
Yverdon 1769.
23,[1],148,[3]p. Contemp. calf, back richly gilt with red label, marbled edges and endpapers. Nice early 20th-century bookplate to front paste-down and name of the same owner very small in corner of first blank. (#30933)
€ 2250

First edition. The author, best known by a volume De l'esprit du gouvernement economique (1775), developed physiocratic ideas independently from the school and without having knowledge of their publications. In the present very rare volume he advocates a system of taxation based upon the value of the land.
'Les véritables principes de l'impôt tels que les dépeignent les écrits physiocratiques. Tous les impôts indirects retombent sur les revenus des proprietaires des bien-fonds. Une meilleure forme d'imposition serait une répartition proportionnelle à la valeur des fonds' (INED).
*INED 551 bis. Goldsmiths'-Kress 10554. Kress 6630. Einaudi 578.

Coinage.
Ordonnancie ende instructie naer de welcke voort-aen hen moeten reguleren die ghesworen wisselaers ofte collecteurs vande goude ende silveren penningen, wesende verboden, gheschroyt, te licht oft te seer versleten, ende oversulcx verclaert ende ghehouden voor billoen, daer toe ghecommitteert om de selve te leveren inde munten van sijne Majesteyt, ende al daer bekeert te worden in penninghen van hunne slaghe. [Half-title:] Ordonnancie ende instrvctie voor de wisselaers.
Antwerpen, Hieronymus Verdussen 1633.
Narrow folio (31 x 10 cm). 126 lvs. Title-page with woodcut coat-of-arms. With 3370 woodcuts. Recent blank calf. Printed on heavy paper, mildly yellowed but a good copy. (#33282)
€ 1250

A manual for moneychangers, following the official ordinance of March 1633. It depicts both sides of 1685 coins in their actual size, with descriptive text and their exchange rate. Included are the gold and silver coins in circulation in all European countries. It was also used to detect counterfeit money and a few counterfeit coins are also reproduced. The text of the ordinance is reproduced on the first seven pages. Also published in French by the same publisher the same year.

DEROUNIAN, Vartan (1888-1954)
Alep et ses environs.
Alep-Syrie [Aleppo], Derounian [c.1931].
Oblong (18x25 cm). [VIIIp. text], 48 plates, [4p. advert.] Orig. decorated wrappers, upper wrapper very little thumbed. (#17600)
€ 750

First edition. An album with 48 photogravure plates in sepia, with captions in English and French, of Aleppo and surroundings. The plates show the great buildings of the city (the citadel, the Zakariyé mosque, the El-Atrouche mosque, etc.), and street scenes, like bazars, vaulted streets, the camel market, narghileh smokers, an Arab peasant drinking coffee, the glowing interior of a coppersmith's shop, etc.
Vartan Derounian was an Armenian photographer born in Arapkir (Turkey). After the Armenian genocide of 1915-17 he emigrated to Aleppo and there established a photo studio. He became best known for his photographs of Armenian refugees in Aleppo. On the rear wrapper a drawing of his studio, ‘grand atelier photographique muni de tous les perfectionnements modernes'.

An early Spanish defence of free trade

DORMER, Diego Josef (-1705)
Discursos historicos-politicos, sobre lo que se ofrece tratar en la junta de los ilustrissimos quatro braços del reyno de Aragon, de los eclesiasticos, nobles, cavalleros, è hidalgos, y de las universidades, que el rey nuestro senor Don Carlos Segundo ha mandado congregar este ano de 1684, en la ciudad de Zaragoça, conforme lo dispuesto por su magestad en las Cortes de 1678.
[Zaragoza 1684.]
[XII],48,65-208p., p.50-64 skipped in pagination but thus complete. Contemp. vellum, little wrinkled. Front free endpaper gone, some light staining, but a good copy. (#35552)
€ 1250

First edition. This book, the only book of the author of economic interest, is important for its early defence of free trade. The author has been credited, with Alberto Struzzi, with having been ‘the sole and unheeded champions of the liberty of foreign trade', whereas until the end of the eighteenth century all leading Spanish writers were mercantilist.
‘A rare book, highly innovative and of great importance, which explains with exquisite clearness the true character of commerce, the nature of exchange, the use and utility of money, the inefficiency of the prohibitive system and the means of encouraging the national industry ... It is one of the most original works of its class, bold and precise in its economic doctrine. The author is greatly in advance of his time, and deliberately puts aside the prevailing prejudices, not only in Spain, but throughout Europe' (Colmeiro p.71).
Dormer studied philosohy and law in Huesca and became one of the major Spanish historians of the seventeenth century, royal chronicler of the kingdom of Aragon in 1674.
*Goldsmiths'-Kress 02548. Colmeiro 175

[DUPONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre Samuel (1739-1817)]
Discours prononcé à l'Assemblée nationale, sur l'état & les ressources des finances. Imprimé par ordre de l'Assemblée.
A Versailles, chez Baudouin 1789.
IV,5-218p. With 6 folding tables. Uncut and unopened in modern half vellum, marbled sides. One line on page 111 made illegible, as is the case in other copies. Partly evenly browned. (#20027)
€ 500

First edition. Dupont's speech before the National Assembly of September 24th 1789 on the financial and fiscal situation of France, one of the most important contributions to French financial history. Dupont outlines the enormous resources of France, including the great wealth of the church derived from its landed estates. Yet he emphasizes the necessity for far reaching tax reforms, including the tax exemptions for the clergy, the abolition of the corvee and internal duties. Instead he proposes a flat land tax, thus following the physiocratic principles.
His speech is followed by a Projet du premier décret à rendre pour l'exécution des vues exposés dans le discours précédent and by a Fragment sur les priviléges particuliers que le clergé s'etait attribués.
*INED 1601. Kress, B.1582. Einaudi 1663. Not in Goldsmiths' or Mattioli.

A commentary on Malthus, 'one of his best books'

[DUPONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre Samuel (1739-1817) & Thomas Robert MALTHUS (1766-1834)]
Examen du livre de M. Malthus sur le principe de population; auquel on a joint la traduction de quatre chapitres de ce livre supprimés dans l'edition française; et une lettre a M. Say sur son Traité d'economie politique.
Imprimé à Philadelphie, chez P.M.Lafourcade 1817.
[IV],159p. Fine recent embossed green boards (sd P.Goy & C.Vilaine), back gilt lettered. A wide-margined copy (23,4 x 14,4 cm). Some very light staining, mostly limited to the lower margin. (#20017)
€ 5000

First (only) edition, rare. The last book of Dupont de Nemours published in the year of his death in America. It is the only criticism of Malthus' population theory from a physiocratic point of view, since all other important adherents of Quesnay had died when Malthus published his book. 'Dupont declared that Malthus was too pessimistic; that the poor would not pactice moral restraint; that population pressure spurred men to increase production. America need not fear population growth for 600-1.000 years at least.'
Dupont's criticism of Malthus is followed by a French translation of four chapters of Malthus' great work dealing with physiocracy that were omitted in Pierre Prevost's translation of 1809 (p.39-115), and by a letter from Dupont to Jean Baptiste Say (p.116-59).
*Goldsmiths'-Kress 21762.1. Einaudi 1666. Not in Mattioli. INED 1603. Spengler p.199.

[DUTOT, Nicolas (1684-1741)]
Reflexions politiques sur les finances, et le commerce. Où l'on examine quelles ont été sur les revenus, les denrées, le change étranger, & conséquemment sur notre commerce, les influences des augmentations & des diminutions des valeurs numéraires des monnoyes.
La Haye, chez les freres Vaillant & Nicolas Prevost 1738.
2 volumes. 12mo. [II],XXI,[1],444; [II],XII,456p. With folding table to volume 1 and 9 folding tables to volume 2. Contemp. calf, gilt backs with double labels, marbled endpapers, red edges, minor and neat repairs to extremities. (#14853)
€ 2500

First edition. An examination of the effects of the increase and decrease of the value of money on public revenue, prices and foreign exchange and in consequence on commerce. The author had been a cashier of the Banque Royale that merged with John Law's Compagnie des Indes in 1720. Until recently his first name was known as Charles and no further biographical details were known.
It is clear that Dutot supported the system of John Law, and his book includes a refutation of Melon's Essai politique sur le commerce of 1734, yet it is according to A.Thiers 'undoubtly the most profound book on Law's system and the causes of its fall'. New editions appeared in 1743 and 1754 and it also was included in Guillaumin's collection Economistes financiers du XVIIIe siècle.
*Kress 4381. INED 1695. EHB 1295. This edition not in Einaudi. Stourm p.93. Palgrave I,p.660.

[FORBONNAIS, François Véron de (1722-1800)]
Examen des avantages et des desavantages de la prohibition des toiles peintes.
A Marseille, chez Carapatria 1755.
12mo. 127p. Contemp. calf, gilt back with red label, marbled endpapers, red edges, back and corners little worn. Bound with two other works. (#30744)
€ 1250

First edition, rare. The importation and manufacture of printed or painted cloth was forbidden in France in 1686, at the instance of the wool and silk industry. Forbonnais here investigates the arguments for and against the prohibition. He favours a liberal policy, but a ‘libéralisme dirigé'. Pages 72-90 are taken by ‘Observations sur l'Examen', attributed to Vincent de Gournay.
*INED 4426. Goldsmiths' 9026. Mattioli 1303. Not in Kress or Einaudi.
Bound with: [François Véron de FORBONNAIS] Essai sur l'admission des navires neutres dans nos colonies [caption-title]. [No place, no publisher 1756 or 1759.] 107p.
First edition. Forbonnais here argues for a conditional admission of merchant ships of neutral countries to France's colonial ports in the interests of commerce. It is the first part of Divers mémoires sur le commerce published the same year.
*INED 4424 (1759). Goldsmiths' 9481 (1759). Kress 5516 (‘Divers mémoires', 1756). Not in Einaudi or Mattioli. BnF (FRBNF31564872) dates this 1756.
And with: Jerome BELLONI (1688-1760) Dissertation sur le commerce. Traduite de l'italien par Mr. A*** [François Morénas]. A La Haye, aux depens de la Compagnie 1755. 72p.
Second French edition. Originally published in 1750 as De commercio ... Dissertatio.
*Kress 5419. Goldsmiths' 9014.

[GOEGG-POUCHOULIN,Marie (1826-1899)]
La Solidarité. Association pour la défense des droits de la femme. Compte-rendu de l'Assemblée générale tenue à Genève le 11 septembre 1876.
Genève, Imprimerie Coopérative 1876.
31p. Orig. printed green wrappers. (#17036)
€ 250

First (only) edition. In 1868 the Swiss feminist Marie Goegg had founded the Association internationale des femmes, the first international collaboration of women's rights groups. Because of its affiliation with the Paris Commune the association was dissolved in 1871. The next year Goegg founded La Solidarité, to improve the civil rights of women, including the achievement of universal suffrage and the access to all levels of education. The association had local committees in several countries and existed until 1880. Among its British members was Josephine Butler.

HAHN, Philipp Matthäus (1739-1770)
Beschreibung einer Rechnungs-Maschine, wodurch man ohne Mühe, durch blosse Herumführung eines Triebels, die vier gewöhnlichen Rechnungs-Arten verrichten kann. [In:] Der Teutsche Merkur vom Jahr 1779. Zweites Vierteljahr, p.137-154.
Weimar 1779.
The whole volume: 2 volumes in 1. 287,[1], 287,[1]p. With 2 folding musical scores. Contemp. blue boards. Stamps to title. Foxing. (#32631)
€ 900

First appearance of the description of the author's famous mechanical calculating machine, ‘the first fully functional popular four-species mechanical calculating machine' The description was already announced by the editor of the Teutsche Merkur, Christoph Martin Wieland, on page 194 of the first part of this volume.
At length: history-computer.com/MechanicalCalculators/18thCentury/Hahn.

HARL, Johann Paul (1772-1842)
Encyklopädie der gesammten Geld'swissenschaft. Erster Theil welcher die Geschichte des Geldes und eine allgemeine staatswirthschaftliche Theorie desselben enthält.
Erlangen, bei Johann Jakob Palm 1806.
VIII,503,[4p. Contemp. boards, back rubbed and with library label, title label partly preserved, red sprinkled edges. Small armorial stamp on title. (#34526)
€ 750
First edition, the only volume published. Harl studied theology but changed his interests and in 1805 was

appointed professor of philosophy and cameral sciences in Erlangen. He became a prolific writer on economic subjects and publisher of an economic journal Cameral-Correspondent. His publications however did not meet with much success, which may explain their rareness. He lost his position in Erlangen and in 1842 committed suicide.
*Kress B.5053. Humpert 11268.

HAYEK, Friedrich August von (1899-1992)
Profits, interest and investment and other essays on the theory of industrial fluctuations.
London, George Routledge [1939].
VIII,266p. Orig. red cloth, back lettered gilt, back faded, tiny signature at top of title. (#21078)
€ 750

First edition, first impression. 'The essays collected in this volume are a selection from the various attemps made in the course of the past ten years to improve and develop the outline of a theory of industrial fluctuations contained in two small books on Monetary theory and the trade cycle and Prices and production (author's preface).
*Gray B-4.

HODGSKIN, Thomas (1787-1869)
Travels in the North of Germany, describing the present state of the social and political institutions, the agriculture, manufactures, commerce, education, arts and manners in that country, particularly in the kingdom of Hannover.
Edinburgh, printed for Archibald Constable and Co 1820.
2 volumes. XXVI,496; X,518,[2 publ. advert.]p., no half-titles. Contemp. calf, backs richly gilt, gilt line borders, marbled edges, sides with a few small abrasions. (#25082)
€ 650

First edition of the author's second book. It is the result of his three-year tour to study the social and economic conditions on the continent in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. His observations are accompanied with anecdotes demanded by his publisher to make the work amusing, and with considerations on good government and administration. Hodgskin's concern with social and economic justice forecasts his later involvement in trade unionism and socialism.
Hodgskin is best remembered for his defence of the right of labourers to 'combine' and for his denouncement of the appropriation of the most part of value produced by the labour of industrial workers as illegitimate (Labour defended against the claims of capital, 1825). It influenced generations of trade unionists and socialists, including Karl Marx.
*Kress C.551. Goldsmiths' 22760.

JUGLAR, Clement (1819-1905)
Des crises commerciales et de leur retour périodique en France, en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis. Deuxième édition.
Paris, Guillaumin 1889.
XX,560p. With 17 mostly double-page tables and 7 large folding tables at end. Finely bound in recent half morocco, marbled sides and endpapers, t.e.g., orig. printed wrappers (stained and with some repairs) preserved. (#24403)
€ 1500

Second, considerably enlarged edition of a pioneering work on business cycle analysis, originally published in 1860. In this second edition Juglar continues his study of industrial fluctuations up to 1882. Though Juglar was a physician by training, like Quesnay, 'he must be ranked, as to talent and command of scientific method, among the greatest economists of all times'.
*Einaudi 3095. Mattioli 1762. New Palgrave II,p.1037. Schumpeter p.1123.

KNIGHT, Frank Hyneman (1885-1972)
Risk, uncertainty and profit.
Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin 1921.
XIV,381,[1]p. Orig. burgundy cloth, back lettered gilt, spine ends lightly rubbed, hinges a little weak. (Hart, Schaffner & Marx Prize Essays XXXI) Presentation inscription on front free endpaper (see below). (#35990)
€ 5000

First edition. A groundbreaking work in which Knight developed his famous distinction between risk and uncertainty. ‘Risk was characterized by the reliability of the estimate of its probability and therefore the possibility of treating it as an insurable cost. The reliability of the estimate came from either knowledge of the theoretical law it obeyed or from stable empirical regularities . The crux of the whole question of probability, whether pure or empirical, for purposes of economic theory, is that in so far as the probability can be numerically evaluated by either method, it can be eliminated and disregarded.'
‘A book of the greatest importance ... it would, in fact, be difficult to discover a better short statement of pure economic theory' (Batson).
The unsigned presentation inscription reads ‘[???]/ to his friend George Schwartz/ on the day of his return to London/ 6 March 1930'. ‘George Schwartz', probably George Leopold Schwartz 1891-1983, studied at the London School of Economics, secretary of the London Cambridge Economics Service, Ernest Cassellecturer at London University, after WWII mostly occupied with economic journalism, Honorary Fellow of the LSE.
*Batson p.27, 57, 83 and 143. New Palgrave III, p.56.

The origins of the indigenous inhabitants of America ... Grotius refuted

LAET, Joannes de (1581-1649)
Notae ad dissertationem Hugonis Grotii De origine gentium Americanum: et observationes aliquot ad meliorem indaginem difficillimae illius quaestionis. [Bound with:] Responsio ad dissertationem secundam Hugonis Grotii, De origine gentium Americanarum. Cum indice ad utrumque libellum.
Amstelodami, apud Ludovicum Elzevirium 1643-44.
2 volumes in 1. Small 8vo. 223, [IV],116,[8]p. Contemp. overlapping vellum, back with ms. title. Unobtrusive old repair to title and last leaf. (#33420)
€ 2150

First edition of both works. A severe criticism of Grotius treatise of the previous year in which he had tried to prove that the indigenous inhabitants of America originated from Norway, Ethiopia and China. Grotius's arguments were mostly based upon classical authors and supported the Christian and European version of the origin of man. De Laet reprinted Grotius' text in Italic adding his critical comments. De Laet, a geographer and director of the West Indian Company and author of the best early account of the Americas, based himself on the knowledge derived from the discoveries of modern explorers and colonists. He includes comparative vocabularies of Anglo-Scandinavian and native American languages.
Grotius self-conceit was hurt by De Laet's criticism and he published a second treatise in which he tried to refute De Laet's arguments, though with more abuse than logic. De Laet answered with a second reply, here found bound with.
*Ter Meulen & Diermanse 727 & 733. Willems 997 & 1007. Sabin 38561 & 38562. Muller 861. Bell L32.

A precursor of John Law

LA JONCHERE, Etienne Lecuyer de (1690-1740?)
Système d'un nouveau gouvernement en France. Seconde edition.
A Amsterdam, chez François le Bon 1720.
4 volumes in 1. 12mo (15,5 x 9 cm). [II],30,[2],96; [II],156; [II],192; [II],200,[4]p. With 4 folding tables (small tear in 2 tables). Contemp. calf, gilt back with red label, few old neat repairs, little rubbed. A few spots and some light staining, old name on title. (#23187)
€ 5000

A notoriously rare proposal for financial and governmental reforms similar to the scheme of John Law. The extreme rarity of this book has been explained by Law's eagerness to destroy as many copies as he could find to hide the fact that much of his own ideas were contained in this book.
‘[La Jonchère] advocates one sole tax, to be paid without privilege or exemption, by all Frenchmen without distinction, to consist of a percentage collected in money or in kind, on the general produce of the ground, mines, quarries, etc., by a ‘Compagnie du Commerce', to be formed for the purpose. This company was to have the monopoly of foreign trade, its shares being given as reimbursement of the price of all the offices sold by the king's predecessors and of the capital of the rents due to towns or individuals. The corn collected by the company was also to be entrusted with the recoinage and ‘diminuations' of the metallic currency, which were to bring it down to what La Jonchère calls ‘its intrinsic value'.'
The mention of ‘Seconde edition' is probably fictious. WorldCat does not locate any copy printed before 1720. The 1970 EDHIS reprint also from this ‘second' edition. The name and place of the publisher are probably fictious as well.
*INED 2517. Not in Kress, Goldsmiths', Einaudi or Mattioli. Palgrave I,p.537.

LAUDERDALE, James Maitland, Eighth Earl of (1759-1839)
Observations on the review of his Inquiry into the nature and origin of public wealth, published in the VIIIth number of the Edinburgh Review.
Edinburgh, printed by D.Willison for Arch. Constable and Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, London 1804.
88p. Fine recent half calf, gilt back with red label, marbled sides. (#16295)
€ 250

First edition. Lauderdale's reply to the highly critical review of his Inquiry, which had appeared earlier that year, by Henry Brougham in the Edinburgh Review. New Palgrave calls it ‘an acerbic but not too effective pamphlet'.
*Kress B.4817. Goldsmiths' 18802. Einaudi 3632.

the Tolpuddle Martyrs

LOVELESS, George (1797-1874)
The victims of Whiggery; being a statement of the persecutions experienced by the Dorchester labourers; their trial, banishment, &c. &c. also reflections upon the present system of transportation; with an account of Van Dieman's [sic] land, its customs, laws, climate, produce, and inhabitants. Dedicated (without permission) to Lords Melbourne, Grey, Russell, Brougham, and Judge Williams. Second edition.
London, published under the direction of the Central Dorchester Committee, by Effingham Wilson 1837.
32p. Recent blank vellum. A few brown spots but a very good copy. Upper margin of last 2 leaves cut short affecting page numbering only. (#15059)
€ 2500

A milestone in the history of British trade unionism. George Loveless and his comrades ‘had struck a blow from which the opposition to trades unionism never recovered and the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs' are saints in the trade union hagiology'.
In the early 1830's a group of six agricultural labourers from Tolpuddle near Dorchester led by George Loveless formed a Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to fight for higher wages. Although trade unions were not forbidden since the Combinations of Workmen Act of 1825 they were accused of swearing secret oaths, thus violating an obscure and obsolete Unlawful Oaths Act of 1797. They were found guilty and sentenced to transportation for seven years to Australia. Growing popular protest - almost a million people signed a petition and 50.000 people marched in London for their release - resulted in their full pardon in March 1836.
The present publication is largely devoted to an account of Loveless' transportation (due to illness he left later than his comrades) to Australia, with details on the hard conditions aboard transports and the dangers of the voyage. He arrived in Hobart on Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on 4 September 1833. He first worked in irons on the roads and later as a shepherd and stock-keeper with some privileges. After the pardon he returned to England in June 1837. He became an active Chartist and in 1844 emigrated to Canada.
This went through at least eight editions in 1837 and 1838. All editions seem rare.
*Kress has the present second edition only C.4422. Goldsmiths' 30126. Printing and the mind of man 305.

MANGOLDT, Hans von (1824-1868)
Grundriss der Volkswirthschaftslehre. Ein Leitfaden für Vorlesungen an Hochschulen und für das Privatstudium.
Stuttgart, J.Engelhorn 1863.
XVI,224p. Contemp. half cloth, corners worn. Small name stamp (‘E.Baumstark') on title, library bookplate to front paste-down. Two pages with mild brown offsetting from an inserted leaflet. (#24097)
€ 1500

First edition. Mangoldt was a civil servant and professor of political science and economics at Göttingen and Freiburg and according to Schumpeter ‘among the century's most significant figures in our field‘.
This is one of his two important contributions to economic theory (the other being Die Lehre vom Unternehmergewinn of 1855). ‘It was a comprehensive but highly compressed work, which stands out not only for its path-breaking discussion of price formation but also for its liberal use of geometric diagrams, including the Marshallian cross of demand and supply. No doubt, Cournot, Dupuit and Gossen had been there before him but there is no evidence that Mangoldt knew anything of their writings.'
There was a second edition of this in 1863, but Schumpeter points out that that edition ‘leaves out the most original element in it, namely the geometrical apparatus that Mangoldt devised for the theory of international values; but Edgeworth brought it to light again'.
*Schumpeter p. 503-504. M.Blaug, Great economists before Keynes, p.148.

MARQUARD [or MARQUART], Johann (1610-1668)
Tractatus politico-juridicus de iure mercatorum et commerciorum singulari ...
Francofurti, ex officina Thomae Matthiae Götzii [Frankfurt, Thomas Matthias Götz] 1662.
2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. [XII],572, [4],156,158-213,215-278,277-744,[138]p., thus complete. With an engraved frontispiece. Contemp. vellum, little wrinkled, neat repair to top of back. Worming in outer margin mostly in second half not affecting text. Some mild browning, small stamp on frontispiece and in the margin of a few other pages. Bound with another work of minor importance. (#33979)
€ 2750

First (only) edition. An important work by a jurist and prominent citizen of the Hanseatic town of Lübeck. The first part, written in Latin, is dedicated to the laws and customs of international commerce and maritime law.
The important second part with own title-page Documenta commercalia contains a great number of documents, partly never before published and now lost. It is mostly in German, but some parts are in Dutch, French, Spanish or Latin. It includes documents, treatises, privileges, etc. on international commercial relations, the Hanseatic League, the trade to the Americas, Willem Usselinx' Argonautica Gustaviana (p.373-540), a collection of documents on the Swedish South Trade Company and its settlement New Sweden, afterwards Pennsylvania, the Dutch West India Company, etc.
*Kress 1097. Goldsmiths' 1676. Sabin 44661. Asher p.85.

MARX, Karl (1818-1883)
Capital. A critical analysis of capitalist production. Translated from the third German edition, by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling and edited by Frederick Engels.
London, Swan Sonnenschein 1896.
XXXII,816p. Orig. red cloth, gilt back, back and rear cover stained, light rubbing to extremities of the back. Mild foxing to preliminary and last leaves. (#13852)
€ 1750

Fifth British edition, reprinting the text of the first English edition published by Sonnenschein in two volumes in 1887. It is also the last nineteenth century edition. Curiously on the verso of the title the first English edition is dated 1886.
*Erstdrucke p.33. Rubel 633.

MARX, Karl (1818-1883)
Miseria de la filosofía. Contestación a la filosofia de la miseria de Proudhon. Versión Espanola, precedida de una carta de Frederico Engels y unos apuntes sobre las teorias, caracter y obras del autor por J.Mesa.
Madrid, Establecimiento tipográfico de Ricardo Fé 1891.
Small 8vo. LIX,[1],174,[1]p. Contemp. cloth, gilt-lettered back, blue decorated endpapers. Name on title, small circular stamp on title and a few other pages, yellowed. (#26772)
€ 450

First Spanish edition. The translator José Mesa y Leompart (1831-1904), who added a long introduction, was a typographer, journalist and political activist. He had been a member of the First International and was also responsible for the first Spanish translation of the Communist manifesto in 1872.
*Rubel 55 lists only translations into German (1885), English (1900) and Italian (1901). A Russian translation appeared 1886.

MARX, Karl (1818-1883) & Friedrich ENGELS (1820-1895)
Manifesto of the Communist Party. Translated from the original for the Socialist Labour Party by Lily G.Aitken and Frank C.Budgen.
Glasgow, printed and published by the Socialist Labour Party, 50 Renfrew Street [c.1916].
III,29p. Orig. printed wrappers, back a bit crudely repaired. (#41173)
€ 750

The present new translation was first published in Edinburgh in 1908/09. In their preface the translators declare that they offer this translation to the workers of Great Britain ‘not because we claim to have improved upon previous translations, but because these previous translations are the property of private firms and individuals' i.e. William Reeves. They nevertheless write that they ‘believe that it renders the original at least more literally than previous English versions'.
A new issue of this translation, appeared in Glasgow in an undated edition with on its upper wrapper ‘Price One Penny', and again - as in the copy here offered - ‘Price Threepence'. Andréas dates these issues between 1914 and 1918.
*Andréas 509a.

Mendelssohn, Moses. - [SCHULZ, Johann Heinrich (1739-1823)]
Der entlarvte Moses Mendelsohn [sic] oder völlige Aufklärung des räthselhaften Todverdrusses des M. Mendelsohn über die Bekanntmachung des Lessingschen Atheismus von Jacobi.
Amsterdam [Berlin?] 1786.
Small 8vo. 120p. Uncut in contemp. drab boards. (#36554)
€ 650

First (only) edition. Schulz was a Lutheran preacher and the author of a number of anonymously published works. In his earlier Philosophische Betrachtung über Theologie und Religion he had attacked Mendelssohn's Jewish orthodoxy and praised enlightened writers like Hobbes and Spinoza.
In 1785 Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi published his Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn, in which he unveiled that Mendelssohn's friend Lessing had confessed to him that 'there is no other philosophy than the philosophy of Spinoza'. This was the beginning of the Pantheismusstreit, the great intellectual debate on the relation between Spinozism, pantheism, rationalism and atheism, joined by many writers and philosophers. Mendelssohn was deeply hurt seeing his friend Lessing portrayed as a Spinozist, i.e. atheist, and - though already sick for years - wrote his An die Freunde Lessings. He died a few days after finishing his book, according to some hastened by Jacobi's harsh distortion of the image of his friend.
In the present volume Schulz gives a new explanation for Mendelssohn's distress. ‘Mendelssohn , says Schulz, had provoked the ire of the enlightened, even atheistic Jews of Berlin,when, in 1781, he upheld orthodox Judaism in his Jerusalem. Schulz's Philosophische Betrachtung, which demolished Mendelssohn's theory of Judaism and gave support to the enlightened Jews, had driven him into a corner and his position would have become completely untenable had it become an accepted fact that his friend Lessing was an atheistic Spinozist. Desperate, Mendelssohn tried all the tricks in his bag to denounce Jacobi as a liar and his friends, knowingly or naively, lent him their support.'
Abusive that this appeared shortly after Mendelssohn died 4 January the same year.
*Bamberger, Spinoza & anti-Spinoza literature 575. Spinoza-Bibliographie 1764 & 12698.

MILL, John Stuart (1806-1873)
Principles of political economy with some of their applications to social philosophy.
London, John W.Parker 1848.
2 volumes. XVI,593,[3],[4 adv.]; XV,549,[1],[2 adv.]p. Modern full calf, gilt backs with red label, backs lightly discoloured. Kept in a cardboard slip-case. Small paper flaw to a half-title. (#16342)
€ 5000

First edition. Mill's magnum opus, the last great synthesis of classical political economy. Though it has been stated that it has not added much new to economic analysis it yet remained the major text book on economics for decades and has exercised profound influence on modern English and foreign economic theory.
*Kress C.7500. Einaudi 3907. MacMinn p.69.

MONTESQUIEU, Charles Louis de Secondat de (1689-1755)
De l'esprit des loix, ou du rapport que les loix doivent avoir avec la constitution de chaque gouvernement, les moeurs, le climat, la religion, le commerce, &c. A quoi l'auteur a ajouté des recherches nouvelles sur les loix romaines touchant les successions, sur les loix françoises & sur les loix féodales.
A Leyde, chez les Libraires Associés 1749.
2 volumes in 1. 4to. VIII,[XVI],369, [II],396[misnumbered 306],[14 index & errata]p. Contemp. calf, gilt back with label, marbled endpapers, red edges. ‘JRB' in ink to title. Occasionally some light foxing but a fine copy. (#31088)
€ 750

A fine edition, published one year after the original edition.

NAIGEON, Jacques André (1738-1810)
Recueil philosophique ou mélange de pieces sur la religion & la morale. Par différents auteurs.
Londres [Amsterdam, Marc Michel Rey] 1770.
2 volumes in 1. Small 8vo. [IV],190, [IV],253,[1]p. Contemp. calf, back richly gilt, red edges, marbled endpapers. An old lithographed library ticket to front paste-down. (#38066)
€ 1500

First (only) edition. A collection of 15 enlightened and materialistic essays by various authors, including Dumarsais, Diderot, Freret, Holbach, Mirabaud, Levesque de Burigny and David Hume. Collected or translated by Naigeon, a French man of letters, contributor to the Encyclopédie, atheist, and friend of the baron d'Holbach.
Of particular interest are the two essays by David Hume, here published for the first time in any language, translated by d'Holbach: Dissertation sur l'immortalité de l'ame and Dissertation sur le suicide. These essays were written around 1755 and printed as part of a book with the title Five dissertations. It was distributed among a selected group of readers only. These two essays provoked great controversy among them and the publisher Andrew Millar convinced Hume, with great difficulty, to remove the two essays. They were replaced with the essay Of the Standard of Taste and the book was published with the title Four dissertations. The two essays were published for the first time in English only in 1777, shortly after Hume's death.
*Todd p.203. Jessop p.33-35 & 39 (at length). Vercruysse 1770.B2.

NIETZSCHE, Friedrich (1844-1900)
Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik.
Leipzig, Verlag von E.W.Fritzsch 1872.
IV,143,[1]p. With engraved vignette on title. Contemp. cloth-backed marbled boards, repair to top of back. Scattered foxing spots, heavier to first and last leaves. (#28910)
€ 3000

First edition. The birth of tragedy from the spirit of music was Nietzsche's first book, written at the age of 28. It was printed in an edition of 800 copies. It has a preface dedicated to Richard Wagner, with whom Nietzsche had an intimate friendship at the time. ‘In this book Nietzsche adopted a tragico-pessimistic conception of Greek civilization, like Burckhardt but contrary to Grote. This started his career as a critic of modern civilization based on disgust with imperial Germany, Christianity, bourgeois ethics, and so on' (PMM).
*Schaberg 20.

PAGE, Pierre François (1764-1805)
Traité d'économie politique et de commerce des colonies.
A Paris, chez Brochot An IX-An X [1800-02].
2 volumes. [VIII],XVIII,356,[1 errata, in facsimile]; XIII,[1],431p. With 10 folding tables. Contemp. calf, backs richly gilt with 2 labels, sides with gilt line borders, marbled endpapers. Half-title of first volume with tiny paper flaw. (#23231)
€ 2000

First edition. An important treatise on the commerce, trade and population of the French, English and Spanish colonies in America, Africa, Asia ans Australia. The author proposes a reorganization of the colonies and to develop its agricultural colonies in Africa, which would reduce the slave trade. Trafficking cannot compensate for the decrease in population in the Antilles, where black mortality is very high. It would be more logical to use blacks in their own country, therefore to establish colonies in Africa, than to transplant them at such great cost.
The second volume is entirely devoted to Saint Domingo, where the author was appointed commissioner of the colony in 1791. It is lacking in many sets.
*INED 3442. Kress B.4429 (first volume only). Sabin 58158 (first volume only). Martin & Walter 26281.

PERDIGUIER, Agricol (1805-1875)
Mémoires d'un compagnon. (Edition autorisée par l'auteur.)
Se trouve: A Genève, rue de Rive [Chambéry, Impr. Bachet 1854 & Genève, Imp. Duchamp et Cie 1855].
2 volumes in 1. 16mo. 287,369p. Contemp. half red morocco, gilt back, marbled sides, red sprinkled edges. A very fine copy. Inscribed by the author: ‘Hommage de l'auteur/ a son ami Blanloeil [?]/ Agricol Perdiguier'. (#40198)
€ 3500

First edition, very rare. These memoirs have been seen as the best known autobiography of a worker in French and a highlight in working class literature. They were republished many times until the present day. Written in 1852 in Antwerp exile, and revised in 1853 in Swiss exile. Perdiguier had wanted to publish his memoirs in journals, but he was unable to find a printer who was not afraid to print such a dangerous work. They were finally printed in a small number of copies at his own expense by two different printers. They were distributed with the greatest difficulties from his own home in Switzerland to France.
Perdiguier was a carpenter who became famous for his writing on workers' brotherhoods, or compagnonnages. He worked for the intellectual and moral development of the workers and preached peaceful relations between the brotherhoods. He published his ideas in his Livre du compagnonnage (1838, several times reprinted). In 1848 he became a member of the Constituent Assembly, but after Napoleon's coup was forced into exile.
*Maitron 1, p.197-198.

'The first scientific examination of private property‘ (Karl Marx)

PROUDHON, Pierre Joseph (1809-1865)
Qu'est-ce que la propriété? ou recherches sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement. Premier mémoire.
Paris, chez J.F.Brocard 1840.
12mo. [II advert.],XII,244p. Modern half red morocco, gilt back, marbled sides (Ateliers Laurenchet), upper wrapper preserved (underlaid and with the label of ‘Prevot, libraire' over the original impressum). Some foxing and browning mostly limited to first leaves and margins. Old name on half-title and old stamp to verso. The publisher's advertisement leaf before the half-title (‘Avis particulier a Messieurs les médecins des villes et des campagnes'), seemingly failing in most copies, underlaid and with a few words illegible. (#19850)
€ 8500

First edition of great rarity. Published six years before his more comprehensive Système des contradictions économiques this is the pamphlet that made Proudhon's reputation with the famous words ‘La propriété, c'est le vol'. Though Marx violently attacked Proudhon in his Misère de la philosophie, written in reply to the latter's magnum opus, he highly praised Proudhon for the present work as the ‘first scientific examination of private property'.
A second edition was published the next year by Prévot, who apparently had taken over the remaining copies of Brocard's first edition, sold with his own label on the upper wrapper. A second memoir Lettre à M. Blanqui sur la propriété and a third Avertissement aux propriétaires, ou lettre à M. Considérant followed the same year.
*Nettlau p.17. Kress, Goldsmith and Einaudi all have later editions only.

A new Wealth of nations

RAE, John (1796-1872)
Statement of some new principles on the subject of political economy, exposing the fallacies of the system of free trade, and of some other doctrines maintained in the ‘Wealth of nations'.
Boston, Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1834.
XVI,414p. Uncut in original drab boards, edges of boards and corners worn, rebacked with green cloth and printed label. A remarkably fresh copy. (#30037)
€ 7500

First edition. A highlight of classical economic theory, for a long time overlooked by economists. John Rae studied at the University of Aberdeen and emigrated to Canada after his father's bankruptcy. He lived a life full of misfortunes and distractions, in various countries working as a physician, school teacher, farmer, judge, notary public, etc. He occupied himself with the study of a great variety of subjects, like mathematics, biology, geology, medicine, history, etc. He however failed in about all his undertakings, with the exception of the present achievement in the field of economics which, in the words of Schumpeter, ‘surpassed in vision and originality the economists who were successful'.
It was quoted frequently by Mill in his Principles, yet remained largely unread, but after the appearance of a new edition in 1905 (with the new title The sociological theory of capital) it was hailed by great economists like Böhm-Bawerk, Wicksell and Irving Fisher.
Rae's knowledge of economic science was based solely on his study of Smith's Wealth of nations. ‘But this he had mastered in all its ramifications, premisses, and implications as only a kindred spirit can, and after having developed his own ideas in constant reference to it, he proceeded to erect a structure similarly conceived. For it is this that we must see in his work: another Wealth of nations or, more correctly, something that with ten additional years of quiet work, graced by an adequate income, could have grown into another - and more profound - Wealth of nations.'
*Kress C.3838. Goldsmiths` 28450. Einaudi 4618. Mattioli 2949. M.Blaug, Great economists before Keynes, p.197-198. J.Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, p.468-469. New Palgrave IV,p.39-40.

RODBERTUS-JAGETZOW, Johann Karl (1805-1875)
Zur Erkenntniss unsrer staatswirthschaftlichen Zustände. Erstes Heft: Fünf Theoreme [all published].
Neubrandenburg and Friedland, G.Barnewitz 1842.
VIII,175,(i.e. 177, p.90b and 90c inserted after p.90a),[1 errata]p. Contemp. half cloth, gilt back, marbled sides, decorated endpapers. Vague call number at foot of title, there underlaid, some scattered brown spots, small stamp at foot of last and another page, old pencil scribbling on errata-leaf and rear free endpaper. Still a good copy. (#24051)
€ 600

First edition. One of the earliest andmost important publications of the author, a pioneer of the theory of state socialism. Rodbertus, known as Rodbertus-Jagetzow from the name of his Pommeranian estate of Jagetzow, was a major figure in the development from utopian to scientific socialism.
Rodbertus defended the Ricardian labor theory of value and was also influenced by Sismondi. ‘For Rodbertus, labour was the only true source of productive wealth. His fundamental proposition, taken from Ricardo, was that the working-classes would always receive only a subsistence wage: the "ron law" of wages. Hence, any growth of national income would inevitably increase the share of rent and profits, whereas the proportion going to wage-earners would fall. This in turn would produce recurrent economic crises as consumption would fail to match output due to lack of demand. Rodbertus may thus be considered as a continental forerunner of underconsumptionist theorists.'
*Kress C.5941. Goldsmiths' 33076. Einaudi 4806. Humpert 8130. New Palgrave IV,p.218.

SMITH, Adam (1723-1790)
Untersuchung über die Natur und die Ursachen des Nationalreichthums. Aus dem Englischen der vierten Ausgabe neu übersetzt. Zweyte, mit Stewarts Nachricht von dem Leben und den Schriften des Autors vermehrte Auflage.
Breslau und Leipzig, Wilhelm Gottlieb Korn 1799.
3 volumes. CLII,460; VIII,702; IV,474p. Contemp. decorated boards, backs with gilt-lettered red label, red edges. Armorial stamp on titles and small library sticker to front pastedowns. A very attractive set. Provenance: the library of the Baron von Hertefeld in Liebenberg. (#24148)
€ 1250

Second edition of the second German translation by Christian Garve, the first edition including Dugald Stewart's essay on the life and works of Adam Smith. This edition appeared first in 1794-96. The first German edition appeared 1776-78 in a mediocre translation by J.F.Schiller and C.A.Wichmann. Garve's translation is generally believed to be the better, according to W.Roscher ‘Die erste gute Uebersetzung des Smith'schen Nationalreichthums'.
*Vanderblue p.27. Kress B 3995. Humpert 12751.

SMITH, Adam (1723-1790)
Theorie der sittlichen Gefühle. Uebersetzt, vorgeredet, und hin und wieder kommentirt von Ludwig Theobul Kosegarten. [And:] Zweyter Band, welcher die Zusäzze zur sechsten Ausgabe enthält.
Leipzig, in der Gräffschen Buchhandlung 1791-95.
2 volumes in 1. [XXXII],463,[1 advert.], VIII,248,[1 errata]p. Contemp. boards, red edges, rubbed, corners and edges worn, back with part of covering paper gone. From the library of the German classicist Friedrich August Menke, with his name on front free endpaper. (#31736)
€ 2250

First edition of the second translation of Smith's Theory of moral sentiments, rare with the almost always lacking second volume. This translation was made after the sixth and final lifetime edition of 1790, which appeared a few months before Smith's death and includes substantial improvements and his last views on many specific points.
A first (incomplete) German translation appeared in 1770, done by Christian Günther Rautenberg after the third edition of 1767.
*Kress B.2212. Vanderblue p.42.

Kipper un Wipper

SPAIGNART, Christian Gilbert de (?-1632)
Theologische Müntzfrage, ob christliche evangelische Obrigkeiten, umb ihres eygen Nutzes willen, die Müntz von Zeit zu Zeiten, mit gutem Gewissen, schlechter und geringer können machen lassen? Kürtzlich und einfältiglich, nach inhalt dess heiligen ewigwehrenden Worts Gottes erörtert und beantwortet. [And:] Die Ander Theologische Müntz-frage, was evangelische Christfromme Obrigkeiten, bey jetzigem entstandenem bösen Müntzen, in acht nehmen sollen, damit sie, so viel müglich, ihres Gewissens pflegen können: Auff vielfeltiges so schrifft- so mündliches Anhalten und Begehren, nach Inhalt des ewigwehrenden Worts Gottes, erörtert und beantwortet.
Gedruckt zu Magdeburg, bey Johan Francken, 1621 [volume 1], Gedruckt zu Erffordt, bey Jacob Sachsen 1622 [volume 2].
2 volumes. 4to. [VIII],96; [XII]88p. Nineteenth-century sprinkled boards. Fine copies. (#41385)
€ 900

Two of the major publications of the ‘Tipper and See-saw time' by this Lutheran theologian and pastor in Magdeburg.
Due to the rising price of silver by the end of the 16th century silver coins of the German city-states became more worth than their nominal value. After the outbreak of the Thirty Years War currencies were debased to finance the high costs of the war and the coinage system of the Habsburg Empire fell into complete disorder. Coins were weighted to sort out the not-yet-debased pieces ('kippen und wippen') and melted and mixed with copper or other cheap metals and reissued.
It worked in the beginning but soon resulted in worthless coins and the complete disarray of the monetary system. Prices raised enormously and caused dreadful distress among the population. Popular protest arose and a great number of pamphlets denouncing the practice appeared between 1620 and 1622. By 1623 the debased coins were withdrawn, but the losses were carried by the impoverished population.
First volume: *Kress S.505. Goldsmiths'-Kress 00507.16. Humpert 10945,
Second volume: *Not in Kress or Goldsmiths'-Kress. Humpert 10946.

The ‘bible' of individualist anarchist literature

STIRNER, Max [Johann Kaspar Schmidt] (1806-1856)
Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum.
Leipzig, Verlag von Otto Wigand 1845 [i.e. 1844].
[II],491,[3]p. Contemp. embossed cloth. A very nice copy. (#20506)
€ 4500

First edition. The 'bible‘ of individualist anarchist literature which was translated into many languages. Max Stirner, known for his translations of the works of great classical economists like Smith and Say, belonged to the leftist group of adherents of Hegel, which also included Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer. Inspired by among others Proudhon Stirner developed an extreme individualism and absolute egoism, excluding all religious and moral duties and restrictions. For Stirner the ego is the only reality, and egoism the only real principle, hence no authority whatsoever can be accepted. Stirner's book, now a classic, has becomen the basis for all later individualist anarchist writers.
*Nettlau p.35. Stammhammer I,p.241. Menger c.368. Humpert 9388.

ThüNEN, Johann Heinrich von (1783-1850)
Der isolirte Staat in Beziehung auf Landwirthschaft und Nationalökonomie, oder Untersuchungen über dem Einfluss, den die Getreidepreise, der Reichthum des Bodens und die Abgaben auf den Ackerbau ausüben.
Hamburg, bei Friedrich Perthes 1826.
[III]-VIII,[1 errata, 1 blank],290,[4 publ. adv.]p., wanting half-title. With 2 folding plates coloured by hand, numbered I-IV. Contemp. calf, back with red label, light wear to extremities. Stamp on title, corners of endpapers browned. Kept in recent cloth clamshell box. (#20614)
€ 7500

First edition. A highly important contribution to exact economic theory by perhaps the most important German economist of the first half of the nineteenth century. It was long-time neglected, probably because Thünen, a landowner from Mecklenburg, had no academic education and favoured liberal and free-trade principles, anathema in nineteenth century Germany. Schumpeter notes that ‘if we judge both men [Thünen and Ricardo] exclusively by the amount of ability of the purely theoretical kind that went into their work, then, I think, Thünen should be placed above Ricardo or indeed above any economist of the period, with the possible exception of Cournot'. Alfred Marshall in his Memorials professed that Thünen was the man ‘to have loved above all my other masters'.
Blaug notes that Thünen was ‘two and perhaps even three economists in one': as ‘father' of location theory, as one of the independent discoverers of the so-called ‘marginal productivity theory of distribution', and as an important pioneer in the use of calculus to obtain solutions to maximisation problems.
A second edition was published in 1842, a second volume in 1850 and a third volume in 1862.
*Kress C.1802. Humpert 1635. Goldsmiths' has the second edition only. R.D.Theocharis, Early developments in mathematical economics, p.113-119. M.Blaug, Great economists before Keynes, p.246-249. New Palgrave IV,p.636-639. Schumpeter p.465.

TRISTAN, Flora (1803-1844)
L'Emancipation de la femme ou le testament de la paria. Ouvrage posthume de Mme Flora Tristan complété d'après ses notes et publié par A.Constant. Deuxième édition.
Paris, au bureau de la direction de La Vérité, Guarin 1846.
16mo. 128p. Uncut in late nineteenth-century half cloth with marbled boards and endpapers. Very mild foxing. (#27453)
€ 950

Second edition, from the same year as the first edition. Flora Tristan's notes on female emancipation, posthumously edited by Alphonse Constant. It represents the ideas of Flora Tristan, but in a form which is not hers.
*Not in Kress, Goldsmith', Einaudi or Mattioli. We could locate only a single copy of the first edition (BnF) and only a few copies of this second edition worldwide.

Unterthänige Vorstellung der in Frankreich ansässigen Juden.
Unterthänige Vorstellung der in Frankreich ansässigen Juden, veranlasst durch die Verlegung der Streitfrage über ihr bürgerliches Schicksal vom 24 December 1789, und der Nationalversammlung zugeschrieben den 28 Jänner 1790. Aus dem Französischen.
Gedrukt zu Strasburg bey Joh. Heinr. Heitz, Univ. Buchdr. 1790.
74p. Contemp. blank wrappers, damaged at back. Some foxing and browning, heavier to first and last leaves. (#16751)
€ 600

Very rare German translation of the petition of French Jews to the National Assembly. It was debated in three sessions in December 1789. In the session of January 28, 1790 a decree was passed to give the Sephardic Jews civil rights. It was not before September 1791 that the emancipation of all Jews was completed.
This originally appeared in French as Pétition des juifs etablis en France, adressée à l'Assemblée nationale, le 28 janvier 1790, sur l'ajournement du 24 décembre 1789.
BnF gives Jacques Godard (1762-1791) as the author, referring to Barbier. It is signed at end: Mayer-Marx, Ber-Isaak-Ber, David Sintzheim, Theodor-Cerf-Berr, Lazarus-Jakob, Traisnel Vater, [and] Cerf Berr, vormals Generalsyndik der Juden.
* WorldCat locates 2 copies only of this German edition (SB Berlin and BNU Strasbourg).

A classic of international law that greatly influenced the thinking of the framers of the American constitution

VATTEL, Emer [Emmerich] de (1714-1767)
Le droit des gens, ou principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite & aux affaires des nations & des souverains.
A Londres [but Neuchâtel] 1758.
2 volumes in 1. 4to. XXVI,[26 table of contents],541; [IV],[16 table of contents],375,[1 errata]p. Contemp. calf, back richly gilt with orange label, red edges, foot (ca.15 mm) of back with stabilized defect. A fresh copy. (#30363)
€ 2000

First edition. A classic of international law, reprinted many times (including a Leiden edition published later the same year) including translations into English and particularly popular in America. The author was a jurist and diplomat from Neuchâtel, influenced by Wolff, Leibniz and Hugo Grotius.
'No writer on the law of nations before Vattel had so consistently - and persistently - emphasized freedom, independence, and interdependence as the condition of states in their relations with one another. The authors of the American Declaration would soon adopt his repeated insistence that states were "free and independent" as the conception of their own states' condition. By doing so, they enacted Vattel's central contention that - in the words of his contemporary English translator - "independence is ever necessary to each state"; to secure that independence "it is sufficient that nations conform to what is required of them by the natural and general society, established among all mankind." In due course, this would become the standard modern definition in international law of independence as "the capacity to enter into relations with other states." It was no coincidence that the conception of statehood as independence found in the Declaration of Independence resembled Vattel's so closely ' (David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A global history, p.39-40).

The honour of special refutation from Malthus

WEYLAND, John (1774-1854)
The principles of population and production, as they are affected by the progress of society; with a view to moral and political consequences.
London, printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy 1816.
XL,493 [errata on p.493],[1]p. Contemp. tree calf gilt back, marbled endpapers. Light foxing to first and last blanks only. A fine copy indeed. (#23416)
€ 1950

First edition. A major criticism of Malthus' population theory, answered by Malthus the next year in the appendix to the fifth edition of his Essay on population. Malthus thought much higher of it than of the other object of the appendix, the Inquiry of James Grahame which appeared the same year, 'a slight work without any very distinct object in view ... Mr. Weyland's work is of a much more elaborate desciption [and] has also a very definite object in view'.
Weyland believed that an increase of population was recommendable and argued that a higher birthrate in the countryside was needed to compensate for the higher mortality rate in towns. He holds that 'population has a natural tendency to keep within the powers of the soil to afford it subsistence in every gradation through which society passes [and] this tendency can never be destroyed, and can only be altered or diverted from its natural course ... by grossly impolitic laws, or pernicious customs, either accelerating the progress of population considerably beyond its natural rate, or depressing the productive energies of the soil considerably below its natural powers' (p.21).
Weyland was a landowner and magistrate from Oxfordshire and author of several books on the poor laws and related subjects.
*Kress B.6837. Goldsmiths' 21429. Einaudi 6027. Bonar p.378-380.