![[CANTILLON, Richard (d.1734).] Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général, traduit de l'anglois. 'London' [Paris:] 'Fletcher Gyles' 1755.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2001/CKS/2001_CKS_06521_0056_000(035152).jpg?w=1)
Details
[CANTILLON, Richard (d.1734).] Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général, traduit de l'anglois. 'London' [Paris:] 'Fletcher Gyles' 1755.
12° (181 x 105mm). Half-title, type-ornament on title, headpiece. Uncut. Original marbled paper wrapper, modern red half-morocco solander case. Provenance: Champvieux (contemporary inscription inside front wrapper).
FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST TREATISE ON MODERN ECONOMICS, UNCUT AND IN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE CONDITION IN ITS ORIGINAL WRAPPER. The Essai has been declared 'more emphatically than any other single work, the cradle of political economy' (Jevons). Published posthumously, the work anticipates Malthus, and was cited by Adam Smith, Condillac, Quesnay, Harris and Postlethwayt. It covers political economy, currency, foreign trade and exchange. Cantillon lived at Paris for many years, where he wrote the Essai, first in English then translating it himself into French for publication. His outspoken belief in the ultimate failure of the Mississippi scheme necessitated his return to England, where, in 1734, he was murdered by his cook, who robbed him and burned the house. An unsatisfactory English translation of the Essai appeared in 1759, which omitted significant parts. Goldsmiths 8989; Higgs, Bib. of Economics, 938; Kress 5423.
12° (181 x 105mm). Half-title, type-ornament on title, headpiece. Uncut. Original marbled paper wrapper, modern red half-morocco solander case. Provenance: Champvieux (contemporary inscription inside front wrapper).
FIRST EDITION OF THE EARLIEST TREATISE ON MODERN ECONOMICS, UNCUT AND IN EXCEPTIONALLY FINE CONDITION IN ITS ORIGINAL WRAPPER. The Essai has been declared 'more emphatically than any other single work, the cradle of political economy' (Jevons). Published posthumously, the work anticipates Malthus, and was cited by Adam Smith, Condillac, Quesnay, Harris and Postlethwayt. It covers political economy, currency, foreign trade and exchange. Cantillon lived at Paris for many years, where he wrote the Essai, first in English then translating it himself into French for publication. His outspoken belief in the ultimate failure of the Mississippi scheme necessitated his return to England, where, in 1734, he was murdered by his cook, who robbed him and burned the house. An unsatisfactory English translation of the Essai appeared in 1759, which omitted significant parts. Goldsmiths 8989; Higgs, Bib. of Economics, 938; Kress 5423.
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