Comercio

ref. 17125 — A Leyde, 1754. Title printed in red and black. vi, (8), 408 pp. 12mo. Contemporary red morocco, gilt fillets on sides, spine richly gilt with gilt stamped ornaments and gilt lettering, all edges gilt, some very, very light wear, one scratch to front cover, corners lightly bumped, a beautiful copy. Kress 5381; Goldsmiths 8916; Higgs 742; Leblanc, De Thomas More à Chaptal, 123; Weulersse, i, p. xix; INED 3607; not in Einaudi (other editions); not in Menger. Second edition. In all, four editions were published in 1754. The work was being published as a translation but was actually written by Louis-Joseph Plumart (or Plumard) de Dangeul who used the pseudonym of John Nickolis. 'd'Argenson admire beaucoup cet ouvrage, qu'il place même audessus de l'Esprit des Lois de Montesquieu.' (Stourm, p. 98). 'Documentation particulièrement riche, accompagnée d'observations personnelles sur la population, les classes sociales, le commerce, l'économie.' (INED) 'Mid-eighteenth-century populationism is best represented in the works of Plumard de Dangeul, Goyon de la Plambaine and Jaubert. Dangeul was concerned primarily to combat celibacy, the principal check (in his opinion) to population growth; for he looked upon such growth as a 'certain sign' of the 'health of the body politic', as a stimulator of agriculture and manufactures, and as a partial source of relief to the taxpayers (the cost of government being relatively fixed).' 'The forces unfavorable to population growth operated more powerfully in some social classes than in others. Both the marriage rate and fertility within marriage were lower in the military class than in any other group; they increased in the following order: magistrates, financiers, merchants, artisans, comfortable laborers, and uncomfortable laborers. In general, Dangeul concluded, the French social system valued least and burdened most heavily the more useful classes, and thereby checked their increase and that of the population as a whole' (Spengler, French predeccessors of Malthus, pp. 82-86). - With a handwritten ex-dono by the author on second blank leaf, binding by Derome (?).