Recherches et considerations sur les finances de France

Basel: Aux Dépens des Freres Cramer, 1758. FORBONNAIS, François Véron Duverger de. Basel: Aux Dépens des Freres  Cramer, 1758. 

First edition. Two quarto volumes. viii, 594; viii, 662 pp. Sixteen folding tables. Titles  printed in red and black. Decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials.  Contemporary Frencb mottled calf. Spines decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments  with tan and olive morocco gilt lettering labels, board edges tooled in gilt, edges  stained red, marbled endpapers. Occasional browning and very minor marginal  dampstaining. A few minor marginal paper flaws. Small ink spot at foot of p. 387 in  Volume II. A wonderful copy. 

"After initial employment in industry and trade in Nantes, [Forbonnais's (1722-1800)]  desire to obtain an official position in the government services (successful in 1756 when  he was appointed general inspector of currency) inspired his career as a writer on  economic and financial subjects. These all have a strong mercantilist flavour, and also  display considerable antagonism to the Physiocrats. Forbonnais contributed a number  of economic articles to the Encyclopédie and provided translations of some important  writings on commerce...Forbonnais' major works are his Elémens du commerce (1754)  and his Principes et observations oeconomiques (1767). The Elémens has the distinction of  being the first French work on economics using mathematical argument...The Principes  is a polemical work in which the major part is devoted to criticism of Quesnay's Tableau  économique and his Encyclopédie articles on Farmers and Corn after an elucidation of  general principles" (The New Palgrave). 

Forbonnais's Recherches et considerations sur les finances de France, considered "the best  work on the history of French finances" (McCulloch), is a year by year account of  French finances under Sully, Mazarin, Colbert, and their successors, up to the time of  John Law. Included are numerous tables, statistics, and original documents and reports,  including the reports of Nicolas Desmaretz (French controller general during the years  1708-1715), Charles Davenant's memoir on the finances of England and Holland,  "Memoire de Mr. Davenant sur les dettes publiques d'Angleterre en 1698" (Volume II,  pp. 285-337), and John Law's memoir "Sur l'usage des Monnoyes" (Volume II, pp. 542-  573), which is followed by a chapter on his manipulations, "Vuë générale du systéme  de M. Law" (Volume II, pp. 574-644).

Einaudi 1927. Goldsmiths' 9390. Higgs 1782. Kress 5691. 

HBS 66987.

$4,000.