The Founder of the Physiocratic School
L’Ami des Hommes, ou Traité de la Population Nouvelle Edition, Augmentée d’une quatrième Partie & de Sommaires.
[Paris: 1758].
Price: $1,500.00
About the item
Second Edition of parts I-III, first Edition of part IV. (8), 192; (2), 266, (4); (6), 264; (8), 278, 81pp. 2 vols. 4to. The Founder of the Physiocratic School. Contemporary mottled calf with gilt spines, red morocco labels; covers a bit rubbed, spine extremities and corners worn with slight chipping, otherwise a very good copy, internally crisp and clean. Frontispiece lacking, as is often the case. Bookplates of A. de Seville. Kress 5735; Higgs 1631; Goldsmith 9317.
Item #8067
A work of fundamental importance, whose appearance created a sensation throughout Europe, was widely translated and reprinted, and earned its author an international reputation “greater than that of any other economist before or after, not excluding Adam Smith or Karl Marx…” (Schumpeter, p. 175n) Mirabeau argues that wealth is the product of population -- in particular, agriculture -- and that a large populartion is desirable, that religious toleration, free enterprise, a more equitable system of taxation and distribution of wealth were necessary components of a vital economy. The first three parts appeared in 1756; by 1758, Mirabeau had fallen under the influence of Quesnay, and issued the fourth part in which the latter’s influence is very much felt. The two between them, it may be said, founded the school of the physiocrats. A fifth and sixth part were added in 1760.
