An inquiry into the principles of political oeconomy ; being an essay on the science of domestic policy in free nations

An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy; Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations
A. Millar and T. Cadell | London 1767 | 4to (23.5 x 29 cm)
| (1) v-xv (12) 639 pp and (16) 646 pp (13) | contemporary full calf
First edition complete with its two folding plates at the end of each volume.
Contemporary English bindings in glazed blonde full calf, richly decorated spines with gilt geometric motifs, flowers, fillets and roll-tooling, as well as morocco red and green title pieces and volume numbering, gilt roll-tooling on the leading edges, marbled pastedowns. Binding skillfully repaired.
Very beautiful copy of one of the precursors of the political economy.
From a well-to-do family of Scottish jurists, Steuart, in turn, embraced the career. In 1735, he was admitted to the Edinburgh bar and immediately began his Grand Tour. This journey, at the time taken by young people of the upper classes in European society, brought him to Germany, France, Spain and Rome. For him, this was undoubtedly an opportunity to observe different political systems across continental Europe. After five years, he returned to Scotland and supported the Jacobite risings aimed at reinstating the Stuart reign after their destitution following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Following Culloden's defeat and the failure of the pretender to the throne, he was forced to flee in exile to France, Flanders and then Frankfurt, before settling in Tübingen for several years.
His numerous travels, as well as his friendship with Hume, aroused his interest in political economy and in 1767 he published his Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, a work that would contribute to ending his twenty year exile, and would allow him to return to Scotland in 1771. Furthermore, it is the first time the term «political economy» has been used since the Frenchman Antoine de Monchrestien in 1615.
For the first time, economic science is seen as a system that is both theoretical and practical, as shown by Steuart's definition: «The principal object of this science is to secure a certain fund on subsistence for all the inhabitants, to obviate every circumstance which may render it precarious; to provide every thing necessary for supplying the wants of the society, and to employ the inhabitants […] in such a manner as naturally to create reciprocal relations and dependencies between them.»
Methodical and orderly, Steuart deploys all of his economic nomenclature, dividing his work into five large books. The first concerns the influence agricultural development has on the growth of the population; the economist also deals with work and its distribution, particularly the introduction of machines in manufacturing. Subsequently, he wonders if their presence is detrimental, by way of employment, to the interest of the population. The second book is concerned with trade and industry, and specifically trade between nations. The third part focuses on the «artificial or material» currencies used in trade and their taxation. The fourth section is dedicated to credit and debt, but also banks and foreign exchange. The final and fifth book deals with tax. Each part sees its detailed plan developed at the beginning of the volume in which it features.
This vast work should have been considered as the founding text of economic liberalism if it had not been overshadowed nine years later by Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, for whom Steuart's intentions could have undermined utopia. In the preface to his French translation, entitled Recherche des principes de l'économie politique (1789), Etienne François de Sennevert pays justice to Steuart: «The Knight Steuart had this honor that mediocrity does not: he has been little quoted, it is true; but we have often copied him. M. Smith himself, in his rightly famous work, The Wealth of Nations, has, in the first three books, merged all that our author has said on the same subjects, but without adding to their depth, because they are but accessories to his plan, and he supposes, in some way, that the developments are known to his reader.» It must be emphasized that Adam Smith did not once reference the work of his fellow; other scholars, however, understood the founding role of Steuart's principles, especially Marx who quoted him several times in his famous Capital.
Superb copy of this founding work on modern economic thought.