Great-Britain's True System: wherein is clearly shewn, I. That an increase of the public debts and taxes must, in a few Years, prove the ruin of the monied, the trading, and the landed interests. II. The Necessity of raising the Supplies to carry on War, within the Year. III. That such a Design, however seemingly difficult, is very practicable: With a Sketch of various Schemes for that Purpose. IV. An Expedient which will support the public Credit, in all Times of public Distress and Danger. To which is prefixed, An Introduction, relative to the forming a New Plan of British Politicks, with Respect to our Foreign Affairs, and our Connections on the Continent. Humbly submitted to the Consideration of all the Great Men, In and Out of Power.

POSTLETHWAYT, Malachy.

Edité par London: Printed for A. Millar, J. Whiston, B. White, and W. Sandby, 1757

A propos de cet article

First edition of the last published work by Malachy Postlethwayt (1707-1767), writer and government publicist under Robert Walpole's administration, from 1743-46 a member of the Royal Africa Company, and compiler of the Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. Postlethwayt proposes a method of financing the ongoing Seven Years War which would not entail further taxes and public debt, and seeks a reorientation of British policy towards the continent. Always a realist, Postlethwayt's "vision was undiluted by vestiges of humanitarism" (The New Palgrave). Postlethwayt is a name with which, according to Schumpeter, every student of economics should be familiar. Writing of the work offered here, Schumpeter comments that 'he was intelligent enough to see the importance of Cantillon's book' (p. 372), the, then unpublished, Essay on the Nature of Trade in General; in the nineteenth century the lengthy, unacknowledged quotations from Cantillon in this work were used to dismiss Postlethwayt as a mere plagiarist (Oxford DNB). Schumpeter reads Postlethwayt's interpretation of 'interest as a payment to hoarders by those who stand in need of it, i.e. as a payment necessary in order to overcome people's reluctance to part with cash' as an early form of 'Lord Keynes' own-rate theory of interest' (p. 372). This copy sold as part of lot 3045 of The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield sale, Part VIII, at Sotheby's London, 25 October 2006. ESTC T95974; Goldsmiths' 9266; Higgs 1514; Kress 5639; Sabin 64565. Octavo (202 x 127 mm). Engraved head- and tailpieces, initials. Contemporary speckled calf, red morocco spine label, raised bands and boards bordered in gilt double fillet, edges sprinkled red. Macclesfield Library armorial bookplate to front pastedown and the usual blind stamps to the first two leaves. Spine rubbed and faded with a few marks; extremities lightly rubbed; front hinge cracked but firm; endpapers, title leaf, and final blank browned from turn-ins; else a very good, clean copy.

N° de réf. du vendeur 126904

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Great-Britain's True System: wherein is clearly shewn, I. That an increase of the public debts and taxes must, in a few Years, prove the ruin of the monied, the trading, and the landed interests. II. The Necessity of raising the Supplies to carry on War, within the Year. III. That such a Design, however seemingly difficult, is very practicable: With a Sketch of various Schemes for that Purpose. IV. An Expedient which will support the public Credit, in all Times of public Distress and Danger. To...
• Éditeur: London: Printed for A. Millar, J. Whiston, B. White, and W. Sandby, 1757
• Édition: Edition originale