steuart sir james denham (3 Ergebnisse)

First collected edition of the works of one of the leading political economists of the 18th century, a principal advocate of mercantilism and a major intellectual opponent of Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations was written in part to refute his theories. Steuart's Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy (1767) was perhaps the first systematic treatise on economics in English. Only the publication of the Wealth of Nations in 1776 prevented it becoming "the standard English economic text" (Carpenter, p. 20). Throughout the 1770s and 1780s, it was more widely cited than Smith's work, and the Inquiry was studied closely by Marx, Hegel, and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton shaped his protectionist policies in line with Steuart's analysis. This edition was prepared by the prominent antiquarian George Chalmers (1742-1825). Vols I-IV contain the Inquiry, while the remaining two volumes collect Steuart's writings on money, coinage, and philosophy, together with shorter autobiographical notes. Einaudi 1526; Goldsmiths' 19010; Kress B.4987. Kenneth Carpenter, The Economic Bestsellers Before 1850, 1975. 6 volumes, octavo (221 x 134 mm); index leaves of vol. IV bound at the end of vol. VI. Near-contemporary quarter cloth, spines numbered in black, grey boards. Early bookseller's stamp of Cooke & Sons, Warwick, to front free endpapers. Worn, slight toning, browning, and spotting to contents: a good set, largely unopened.

First Dublin edition of the author's masterpiece, marking the culmination of British economic thought before the Wealth of Nations. The work was first published in London in 1767; this is the second edition overall and much rarer. It was the Dublin edition which "was widely circulated in the colonies. The book also attracted the attention of Alexander Hamilton, whose protectionist position was adopted with a view to counterbalancing the competitive advantages of the British economy in the years following the treaty of Paris (1783)" (ODNB). "Sir James Steuart had the misfortune to be followed by Adam Smith in less than a decade. Otherwise [Steuart's Inquiry] would probably have served as the standard English economic text" (Carpenter, p. 20). Its later influence "proved to be most considerable on the continent. During the 1770s the text was translated into German (twice), and into French in 1789. One authority has noted that 'until the final decade of the eighteenth century, Sir James Steuart's Inquiry was better known and more frequently cited than Smith's Wealth of Nations'" (Tribe, p. 133). ESTC T117698. Kenneth Carpenter, The Economic Bestsellers Before 1850, 1975; Keith Tribe, A Critical Biography of Adam Smith, 2002. 3 vols, octavo (211 x 121 mm), pp. [10], xii, [6], 426, [2]; [16], 424; [8], 431, [21]; folding table in Vol. III. Contemporary sprinkled calf, brown labels. Vol. I with slight chip to label, minor wear to spine ends and superficial splits to joints, a few indentations to book block edges, light foxing to contents. A very good copy.

Very rare first edition, written by Steuart whilst in Tübingen, where he had settled in 1757 with his wife and son under the protection of the Duke of Würtemberg, to whom the work is dedicated (in French). In it, Steuart attempted to disentangle the inextricable perplexities of the German mints. The work was translated from a manuscript by Christoph Friedrich Schott, and was only first published in English in 1805 as A Dissertation upon the Doctrine and Principles of Money, applied to the German Coin in volume five of the Works, political, metaphysical, and chronological. Carpenter, Dialogue in Political Economy, 25; Higgs 2537; Holzmann & Bohatta VI, 156; Kress 5986; Lipsius & Leitzmann, p. 2. Octavo (209 x 140 mm). With a large folding table opposite p. 54. Printed in Gothic type. Uncut in recent half mottled calf and marbled boards, spine decorated in blind, red morocco label lettered gilt. Pale dampmark to upper margin of first few leaves, occasional marginal dust soiling; a very good copy, entirely uncut.