[CANTILLON (Richard)]. Essay on the nature of commerce in ge - Lot 95

[CANTILLON (Richard)]. Essay on the nature of commerce in general. Translated from the English. London, Fletcher Gyles, 1755. In-12, first edition of this fundamental work considered the first systematic treatise on economics. Bound in full contemporary marbled basane, 5-ribbed spine, red morocco title-piece. Handwritten annotations in ink on upper flyleaf ""This work is not translated from English as the title [...]. It is by a Frenchman and written in French in England, and it is one of the best one can read". Exemplaire de Talleyrand avec ex-libris de la bibliotèque du chateau de Valençay. An Irish economist who made his fortune in France thanks to Law's system, Richard Cantillon was one of the most important authors of physiocracy. Written between 1728 and 1730, the distribution of handwritten copies of his work inspired Condillac, Mirabeau and Turgot, but it was not published until 1755, after the author's death. Richard Cantillon announced many of the major economic theories of classical economics, including those of Hume, Ricardo and Malthus. He was also cited by Adam Smith in his seminal The Wealth of Nations, and was the first author to highlight the role of the entrepreneur in economic life. He also discusses the nature of wealth, economic functions in society, the structure of consumption and production, money, foreign trade and more. "His contribution to modern thought is incomparable. His analysis integrates producers, consumers, population, money and credit, as well as international trade. An expression of innovative thought, the Essay seems to have been stifled by the physiocratic wave. Hume, Beccaria, Adam Smith, Turgot and so many others drew on it, without always quoting it" (En Français dans le texte, n°159). Extremely rare first edition with an illustrious provenance. (Rubbing and soiling to the binding, tiny foxing, glue discharges from the binding to the flyleaf, small loss to the upper headpiece, trace of label at the top of the spine, one word corrected in pen on page 105, a few pen strokes in the margins, without the publisher's catalog at the end of the volume).