An Inquiry Into the Principles of Political Oeconomy: Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations.

STEUART, Sir James Denham.

Edité par Dublin: for James Williams and Richard Moncrieffe, 1770

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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.

N° de réf. du vendeur 173735

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: An Inquiry Into the Principles of Political Oeconomy: Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations.
• Éditeur: Dublin: for James Williams and Richard Moncrieffe, 1770
• Édition: Edition originale