QUARITCH
MODERN ECONOMICS SERIES
I
Böhm-Bawerk, Gossen, Mises, Hayek, Menger, Jevons, Walras,
Edgeworth, Fisher, Commons, Veblen, Weber, Pantaleoni, Hobson…
Bernard Quaritch Ltd – Autumn 2015 - [email protected]
MODERN ECONOMICS SERIES
I
The inaugural issue of Quaritch’s Modern
Economics Series gathers, among other things,
remarkable copies of works which brought
about one of the most important events in 19th
and 20th century economics: what has been
called the ‘marginal revolution’, while also
exploring its impact on modern American
economic thought.
Böhm-Bawerk, Mises, Menger, Jevons,
Walras, Fisher, Commons among others
are represented here, in some cases with
fine association copies. A particular
mention ought to be reserved for this copy
of Gossen’s momentous work, which in
content preceded the ‘revolution’ by two
decades: in the original wrappers and in
fine condition.
We hope to continue to illustrate the richness of the
modern developments of economic thoughts in further
issues of our series. Should you wish to register your
particular interest with us, please do so by writing to us
([email protected]) and we will be sure to notify
you of relevant new arrivals.
MODERN ECONOMICS SERIES
I
A LITTLE-KNOWN PIONEER
1. AGAZZINI, Michele.
Bossange, 1822.
La science de l’économie politique.
Paris, London,
8vo, pp. xv, [1], 389, [1] + 13 plates, 1 engraved, 12 folding; a few small marks, short tear
(without loss) at head of the half-title; a good copy in recent half morocco with marbled
boards, spine gilt in compartments with gilt lettering.
£750
First edition of Agazzini’s science of political economy, in which ‘les doctrines sont généreuses et
élevées’ (Coquelin & Guillaumin). The book was published in Italian only five years later.
A strongly independent thinker who, though liberal, did not subscribe wholesale to the Classical
school of economic thought prevalent in his times, Agazzini proposes a view of economics as the
science that refers to a complex body of interdependent phenomena. He pioneered the statement of
such principles as that of substitution, of marginal productivity, of complementary utility. P. E.
Saviani’s study of Agazzini’s works is the most complete tool on the subject, Agazzini having
remained so far in relative obscurity.
Einaudi 73; Goldsmiths’ 23362; Kress C.808. Not in Mattioli.
2. AMOROSO, Luigi. Principii di economia corporativa. Bologna, Nicola Zanichelli,
1938.
8vo, pp. [2] blank, [iii]–xix, 367, [1] blank; with 17 plates (14 printed in colour); pencil
ownership inscription to the front flyleaf; very light spotting to a few plates and adjacent
pages; else a very good copy, entirely uncut and unopened in the original printed wrappers.
£150
First edition. A mathematician by training, Amoroso (1886–1965) was inspired by Pareto to develop
the relationship between pure economics and physics. ‘He also saw analogies between Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle and economic phenomena’ (The New Palgrave).
‘During the Fascist period he was able, unlike some colleagues, to continue working in Italy. His
Principii, written during this period, has discussions of money and equilibrium quite free from
political implications and, in the third part, an economic theory of Fascism stated in analytical terms,
which remains within the mainstream of economic science’ (Who’s Who in Economics).
PRESENTATION COPY
3. BÖHM-BAWERK, Eugen von. Einige strittige Fragen der Capitalstheorie. Drei
Abhandlungen. Vienna and Leipzig, Wilhelm Braumüller, 1900.
8vo, pp. [4], 127, [1]; a very attractive copy in contemporary half cloth; endpapers a little
stained; ‘Vom Verfasser’ inscribed on the title page; endpapers with previous owner’s
dedication and handwritten notes: ‘An H. Furuja (Oct. 1947) ← Seiichi Tobata Leipzig
August 1928’ on the front pastedown, and ‘Zugleich S.S. 129 – 306 Eugen von BöhmBawerk: kleine Abhandlungen über Kapital und Zins, hrsg. Franz X. Weiss, 1926. Wien und
Leipzig’ on the front free endpaper.
£17,000
Presentation copy of the original offprint and
first separate edition of this rare contribution on
problems of capital theory, by one of most
important leaders of the Austrian school of
economics. Böhm-Bawerk’s thoughts on capital
and interest also exerted great influence on
American economists, particularly Irving Fisher.
On the relationship between Böhm-Bawerk’s
thought and modern economists, Hennings states
that ‘the neoclassical part of his (Böhm-Bawerk’s)
argument, in particular his analysis of intertemporal
consumer behaviour, was taken up by Irving Fisher
(1907, 1930) and developed into a theory of interest
which is based on the notion of time preference and
the concept of investment opportunities’ (in The
New Palgrave, vol.1, p.257).
Specifically in this work, ‘Böhm-Bawerk posed a
problem which had not been seen before in its full
importance: the role of the rate of interest in the
choice of an optimal method of production’ (ibid,
p.258).
‘As civil servant and economic theorist, BöhmBawerk was one of the most influential economists
of his generation. A leading member of the
Austrian School, he was one of the main propagators of neoclassical economic theory and did much to
help it attain its dominance over classical economic theory. His name is primarily associated with the
Austrian theory of capital and a particular theory of interest’ (ibid, p.254)
Provenance: presentation copy from the author, then owned by the Japanese economist Seiichi
Tobata (1899 – 1983), Professor of agriculture and economics at Tokyo University, recipient of the
1968 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service for his contributions to the modernization of
Japanese agriculture. He is also famous for his translation and introduction of J. A. Schumpeter’s
Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, History of Economic Analysis and other works in Japan.
Afterwards in the ownership of Hiroshi Furuya (1920 – 1957, also spelled as Furuja), Professor of
economics at Tokyo. He specialized in mathematical economics.
4. [CLARK, John Bates.] HOLLANDER, Jacob H., editor. Economic Essays
contributed in honor of John Bates Clark. Published on behalf of the American
Economic Association. New York, Macmillan Co., 1927.
8vo, pp. viii, [1] divisional title, [1] blank, 368; with a frontispiece portrait; a very fine copy
in the original publisher’s cloth, very well preserved, spine lettered gilt.
£100
First edition. The contributors include James Bonar, Richard Ely, Frank Fetter, Irving Fisher,
Franklin Giddings, Charles Gide and Edwin R.A. Seligman. A useful bibliography of Clark’s
writings (pp. 339–51) is also appended.
This copy belonged to Vincent Lanfear, author of Business Fluctuations and the American Labor
Movement, 1915–1922 (1924), with his ownership inscription to the verso of the frontispiece.
VEBLEN’S FIRST BOOK
5. COHN, Gustav. The Science of Finance … Translated by T. B. Veblen. Chicago,
University of Chicago Press, 1895.
Large 8vo, pp. xi, [1] blank, 800; embossed college library stamp to the title, deaccessioned
ink stamps to the front flyleaves; tear to the final leaf repaired; a trifle shaken in the original
publisher’s cloth, rubbed, upper board and spine lettered gilt, shelfmark at foot of spine.£550
First edition in English of Cohn’s System der Finanzwissenschaft (1889), published as No. I of the
Economic Studies of the University of Chicago. This is also Thorstein Veblen’s first book (previously
he had only published journal articles and reviews). His next book publication was the magisterial
Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).
‘I do not hesitate to say that a reading of the proof-sheets has satisfied me (as far as I am a competent
judge) of the excellence of the translation. I can therefore only express the hope that my book may in
this new form meet as cordial a welcome beyond the sea as has already been accorded to many books
of mine in the original’ (author’s preface). The translation was supposed to be a joint effort by the
entire economics staff at the new University, but Veblen’s superior command of German meant that
he did all the work.
Dorfman, p. 519; not in Menger.
MILESTONE OF INSTITUTIONALISM:
A PURE CAPITALISTIC FRAMEWORK IS NOT FIT TO REPRESENT THE ECONOMY
6. COMMONS, John. The Legal Foundation of Capitalism, New York, Macmillan,
1924.
8vo, pp. [1], x, [1], 394, [2]; a very good, clean and crisp copy in the original cloth, minimal
spots to the cover; ownership inscription on the rear free endpaper.
£4500
First edition of a major work of American economics, one of Commons’s three major treatises on
economic theory, in which he developed ‘theories of the evolution of capitalism and of institutional
change as a modifying force alleviating the major defects of capitalism’ (The New Palgrave). In
Legal Foundations of Capitalism, ‘he sought to demonstrate the importance for economic theory of
collective action in all its varieties. These included not only the state but also a host of voluntary
associations, such as the corporation and the trade union; in fact, collective action conceptually
embraced all institutions, since Commons defined an institution as “collective action in control of
individual action”’ (IESS).
‘Although Commons’ institutionalism had different emphases from that of Thorstein Veblen, for
example, in that Commons stressed reform of the capitalist framework, they shared a view of
economics as political economy and of the economy as comprising more than the market’ (The New
Palgrave, vol.1, p.506).
W. J. Samuels wrote ‘Commons was one of the few American economists to found a “school”, a
tradition that was carried forward by a corps of students, especially Selig Perlman, Edwin E. Witte,
Martin Glaeser and Kenneth Parsons. Much mid-20th-century American social reform, the New Deal
for example, drew on or reflected the work of Commons and his fellow workers and students’ (ibid.,
p.506).
IESS (1924).
‘AN ENTHUSIASTIC VEBLENITE AND A STRONG RADICAL
OF THE MIDDLE WESTERN TYPE’ (SCHUMPETER)
7. DAVENPORT, Herbert Joseph.
London, Macmillan & Co., 1896.
Outlines of Economic Theory. New York &
8vo, pp. xii, [2], 381, [1] blank; Australian bookseller’s ticket to the front pastedown; short
tear to the fore-margin of p. 139; a very good, clean copy, uncut in the original publisher’s
cloth, a little darkened, spine lettered gilt, lightly sunned.
£450
First edition. ‘Davenport [1861–1931] was an excellent theorist and a great teacher in his day, and the
profession is under considerable obligation to him for the infinite pains he took to straighten out the
fundamental problems of his time … He was an enthusiastic Veblenite and a strong radical of the
Middle Western type who saw evil spirits of reaction stalk both the professional and the national
scene without making any effort – obviously unnecessary – to verify their existence. Davenport thus
affords one of the examples that show that preoccupation with the theory of that epoch was perfectly
compatible with institutionalist sympathies’ (Schumpeter, p. 875).
Batson, p. 111; Masui, p. 1374; Menger, col. 437.
8. EDGEWORTH, Francis Ysidro. The theory of international values. [In The
Economic Journal, the journal of the British Economic Association, edited by F.Y.
Edgeworth, Volume IV]. London, Macmillan and Co., 1894.
Large 8vo, pp. VIII, 760, 2; small stamp in the lower margin of p. iii, light dust-soiling to p.
1, else clean and crisp copy bound in contemporary black cloth for Pomona College, flat
spine with a red gilt lettering-piece; extremities a little bumped.
£275
First edition of Edgeworth’s three-part study, occupying pp. 35-50, 424-443 and 606-638. Here he
published a diagram explaining the terms of trade from a geometrical perspective, basing this article
on J. S. Mill’s work on trade and his theory on reciprocal demand. ‘I shall endeavour, in a first
article, to express in as simple language as possible some propositions of the double character of the
theory. A mathematical version of the same propositions will form the second part. The third part will
contain a critical review of the principal writers on international trade’ (p. 37).
The pure
theory of taxation. [In The Economic Journal, the journal of the British Economic
Association, edited by F.Y. Edgeworth. Volume VII]. London, Macmillan and Co.,
1897.
9. EDGEWORTH, Francis Ysidro [and Irving FISHER, see below].
Large 8vo, pp. VIII, 660, 5-8; small stamp in the lower margin of p. v, else a clean and crisp
copy bound in contemporary black cloth for Pomona College, flat spine with a red gilt
lettering-piece; head of spine a little worn, label rubbed.
£220
First edition of Edgeworth’s three-part study (p. 46-70, 226-238 and 550-571). This volume also
contains two articles by Irving Fisher: Senses of capital (pp. 199-213), and The role of capital in
economic theory (pp. 511-537).
‘Edgeworth now publicly corrected Seligman’s reasoning about the incidence of a tax on gross
receipts and then went on to explain why Seligman’s methods of analysis were prone to errors.
Edgeworth included a long and complicated note that referred to section 31 in chapter 5 of Augustin
Cournot’s Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth, first published in 1838. Cournot ([1838]
1995, 44) suggested that while it seemed almost commonsense that the price fixed by the monopolist
would rise when his costs of production increase, “so important a proposition should be supported by
a rational demonstration.” A tax on supply was, according to Cournot, an “artificial cost,” but its
effect would be to raise the price fixed by the monopolist. Edgeworth’s note was designed to show
that Cournot had already proved that a tax must raise the monopolist’s selling price. Edgeworth
suspected that his refutation of Seligman through the use of such simple mathematical analysis (that
is, through the use of the calculus) would “show the great superiority of the genuine mathematical
method,” especially against the pretensions of the more literary economists of the day (Edgeworth
1897, 229 n.)’ (Moss, The Seligman-Edgeworth debate, in ‘History of political economy’ 35: 2, 2003,
pp. 211-212).
STARTINGLY ORIGINAL (BLAUG)
10. FISHER, Irving. Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices.
Read April 27, 1892. [in:] Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and
Sciences. Volume IX. New Haven, by the Academy, 1892.
8vo, pp. [iv], 542; with 15 lithographic plates at the end (Fisher: pp. 1-124); lower outer
corner of one leaf repaired far from text (p. 57, very probably to remove a black marker’s
line, which has left a light trace on the facing page), the faint evidence of a removed stain in
the lower margin of p. 53, still a very good copy, in modern green half morocco, marbled
sides, spine filleted in gilt with gilt contrasting lettering-pieces.
£5500
First appearance of Fisher’s ‘startlingly original PhD thesis’ (Blaug) which contained, among
other things, the design of a machine to illustrate general equilibrium in a multi-market
economy. This work expounds his monetary theories and established his international reputation.
‘Fisher’s aim in his Mathematical Investigations was to present a general mathematical model of the
determination of value and prices. He claimed to have specified the equations of general economic
equilibrium for the case of independent goods (chapter 4, sec. 10), although the only mathematical
economist whose work he had consulted was Jevons. With commendable honesty he recognizes the
priority of Walras’s Eléments d’économie politique pure (1874) as far as the equations of the general
equilibrium are concerned and likewise the priority of Edgeworth’s Mathematical Psychics (1881) as
regards the concept of utility surfaces. It appears that, although only a student, Fisher had
independently developed a theory of general economic equilibrium that was identical to part of
Walras’s and included the concept of the indifference surface, one of the fundamental bases of
modern economic theory’ (IESS).
Fisher’s paper, here on pp. 1–124, was subsequently offprinted, for presentation.
Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, p. 77–81; Fisher E-8.
11. FISHER, Irving. The rate of interest. Its nature, determination and relation to
economic phenomena. New York, Macmillan, 1907.
8vo, pp. [2], xxii, 442, [2]; a very good copy in the original cloth; minor stains and spots to
the covers and endpapers, hinges minimally split but firm; ownership inscription on the front
free endpaper, ‘New York, March 1908, K. Otsuka’.
£4750
First edition, and first incarnation of Irving Fisher’s
major contribution to modern economics. In the preface,
Fisher mentions and praises contributions on interest from
Rae, Böhm-Bawerk, Landry and others. He later dedicated
the revised and re-titled version (1930) to Rae and BöhmBawerk.
This work is remarkable for its groundbreaking attempt at a
systematic investigation of consumption behaviour and
investment. Here Fisher extended the general equilibrium
theory to intertemporal choices. He clearly exposed what we
today call the ‘life cycle’ model, explaining why individuals
will generally prefer to smooth their consumption over time,
whatever the time path of their expected expenditures might
be. He described himself as an advocate of ‘impatience’ as
an explanation of interest, although he realized there are two
sides of the saving-investment market, and though he
acknowledged that real interest rates can at times be zero or
negative. ‘He appeared to believe that in a stationary
equilibrium with constant consumption streams, consumers
will require positive interest’ (The New Palgrave, 2, p.373) .
‘Fisher is widely regarded as the greatest economist
America has produced. … Much of standard neoclassical
theory today is Fisherian in origin, style, spirit and substance’
(ibid., p.369). ‘No American has contributed more to the advancement of his [Fisher’s] chosen
subject … The name of that great economist and American has a secure place in the history of his
subject and of his country’ (ibid., p.376).
Fisher’s ‘generous acknowledgement of the priorities of Rae and Böhm-Bawerk did not allow the
powerful originality of his own performance to stand out as it should. The “impatience” theory of
interest is but an element of it. Much better would its nature have been rendered by some such title
as: Another Theory of the Capitalist Process. Among the many novelties of detail, the introduction of
the concept of marginal efficiency of capital (he called it marginal rate of return over cost) deserved
particular notice’ (Schumpeter p. 872). It was reworked and republished in 1930 as The Theory of
Interest.
Provenance: Kinnosuke Otsuka (died 1977, a teenager when he acquired this book) was the translator
and disseminator of Marshall’s work into Japan. His very influential translation of the Principles was
published in 1919. Fisher E–97; Masui 1451.
THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN CONCEPT OF ‘PURCHASING POWER’
12. FISHER, Irving. The purchasing power of money. Its determination and relation to
credit interest and crisis. New York, Macmillan, 1911.
8vo, pp. [1], xxii, [1], 505, 1 blank, [1], 4 advertisements, [1]; a very good copy in the
original cloth, minor spotting to cover, one small split in the rear hinge; bookseller’s ticket on
the front pastedown.
£3000
First edition. ‘In The Purchasing Power of Money, Fisher completely recast the theory of money,
giving a full demonstration of the principles that
determine the purchasing power of money in the
formal framework of the equation of exchange and
applying these principles to the study of historical
changes in purchasing power. It is impossible,
without doing grave injustice to the author, to
analyze or even summarise this book, which is
powerfully original in its close association of theory
and econometric analysis with factual data’ (IESS).
Here Fisher formulated his famous Fisher Equation
regarding optimal monetary quantity, that is:
MV=PT, where M is the stock of money; V is
velocity, the average number of times per year a
dollar of the stock changes hands; P is the average
price of the considerations traded for money in such
transactions; and T is the physical volume per year
of those considerations.
The idea of purchasing power became the
foundation of modern theories of monetary
measurement, and of index of public welfare.
Fisher, M-169; IESS (1911).
A SIGNIFICANT LINK BETWEEN THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL
AND AMERICAN ECONOMICS
13. FISHER, Irving. The theory of interest. As determined by impatience of spending
income and opportunity to invest it. New York, Macmillan, 1930.
8vo, pp. xxvii, 1 blank, [2], 566, [5]; minimal stains on half-title and title page; a very good
copy, untrimmed in the original cloth with original publisher’s dust jacket; bookseller’s
ticket on the rear free endpaper.
£1750
First edition. Fisher’s Theory of Interest, a revised version of his earlier book The Rate of Interest
(1907), was dedicated to John Rae and Böhm-Bawerk, and is a further development of their ideas:
‘its greatness as a book lies wholly in its outstanding pedagogic qualities... [which] amounted to the
demonstration that the real rate of interest is determined by both demand and supply, by the demand
for production and consumption loans on the one hand and the supply of savings on the other’
(Blaug).
One reason for this revision was that Fisher’s critics apparently did not understand the 1907 version.
Critics at that time typically concentrated on the ‘impatience’ side of Fisher’s theory of intertemporal
allocation and missed the ‘opportunities’ side. In contrast, Fisher did claim originality for his concept
of ‘investment opportunity’. This turns on ‘the rate of return over cost, where both cost and return are
differences between two optional income streams’ (The New Palgrave, 2, p. 372). ‘[Fisher]
proceeded as if there were just one aggregate commodity to be produced and consumed at different
dates. This simplification enabled him to illuminate the subject more brightly than Walras’ (ibid,
p.372). Fisher E-1539; IESS 1930a; see Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, p. 79.
A MOMENTOUS BOOK –VIRTUALLY UNKNOWN FOR 35 YEARS
AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY, FINE, IN THE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS
14. GOSSEN, Hermann Heinrich. Die Entwickelung der Gesetze des menschlichen
Verkehrs und der daraus fliessenden Regeln für menschliches Handeln. Berlin,
Prager, 1889.
8vo, pp. [2], viii, 277, [1] errata, [12] advertisements; 12-page advertisements pasted on the
hinge of the final page; a fine copy, untrimmed in the original publisher’s wrappers, joint
slightly pressed at head of spine and split at bottom (no paper loss).
£16,000
First edition, second issue after the
commercial fiasco of the first, with the
original text block and a new title-page.
Originally published at Gossen’s own expense
by Vieweg in Brunswick in 1854, this
momentous book went virtually unnoticed,
with very few copies sold and most unsold
copies returned to the author. Gossen’s
nephew Hermann Kortum eventually offered
the unsold copies to Vieweg’s successor,
Prager, in 1889. Prager put on a new paper
cover, title page and a short notice to mark the
new issue, but kept the text sheets from the
original 1854 edition.
Gossen’s work, which had generally been
overlooked even in Germany (it is not
mentioned in Roscher’s History), was brought
to light by professor Adamson, and an
account was given by Jevons in the preface to
the second edition of his Theory of political
economy. The work is an attempt to found
economics on a mathematical basis; the
author regarded his services as similar to
those of Copernicus in astronomy. Here
Gossen formulated the law of diminishing
utility, around twenty years before Menger,
Jevons and Walras. He expressed his
groundbreaking insights in mathematic
formulas, which became the analytical
foundation of modern economics. The book
stands therefore as a landmark of the so-called ‘marginal revolution’ and of mathematical
developments in the history of economic thought.
‘Gossen recognized at once that a necessary condition for the optimal allocation of resources is the
equality of the marginal utilities in different activities. This is ‘Gossen’s Second Law’, which he had
printed in heavy type: ‘The magnitude of each single pleasure at the moment when its enjoyment is
broken off shall be the same for all pleasures’. This theorem is Gossen’s principal claim to fame. In
it he had no forerunners. It was the key that opened the door to a fruitful analytical use of the
(Gossen’s) First Law and thus initiated the ‘marginal revolution’ in the theory of value’ (The New
Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, vol.2, p.551). ‘His [work] was probably the greatest single
contribution to this theory in the 19th century’ (ibid, p.554).
Cossa 213 (25); Einaudi 2657.
15. HARRIMAN, Norman Follett.
McGraw-Hill, 1928.
Principles of scientific purchasing.
New York,
8vo, pp. xxi, [1] blank, 301, [1]; a very good copy bound in the original publisher’s blindstamped cloth; spine direct-lettered gilt; spine ends and corners a little worn, lower joint just
starting.
£100
First edition of the engineer Norman Follett Harriman’s overview of scientific purchasing.
Harriman, arguing that the modern purchasing agent is ‘an economist—and probably also an
engineer—who studies his materials and products, their sources, methods and costs of
production, markets, and price trends’, sets out to provide a concise account of the scientific
principles that apply generally to business purchasing.
Harriman draws on his extensive experience working with the purchasing standards of the
Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Federal Purchasing Board and the Federal
Specifications Board, where he worked to standardize the purchases and purchasing
procedures of the U.S. Government.
16. HAYEK, Friedrich August von. Prices and Production. London, George Routledge
& Sons, 1935.
8vo, pp. [2, blank], xiv, 162, [2, blank] + 16pp. publisher’s advertisements; a very good copy
in the original publisher’s cloth, spine lettered gilt, small shelfmark written in ballpoint to the
front free endpaper, light paperclip mark to the first two leaves and evidence of a library label
having been removed from the rear pastedown, still a good copy.
£350
Second edition, revised and enlarged, first published in 1931. ‘The compression of the original
exposition has given rise to so many unnecessary misunderstandings which a somewhat fuller
treatment would have prevented that certain additions seemed urgently necessary. I have accordingly
chosen the middle course of inserting into the, on the whole unchanged, original text further
elucidations and elaborations where they seemed most necessary’ (pp. viii-ix).
For the first edition, see IESS 1931 (b).
17. HOAG, Clarence Gilbert.
Company, 1914.
A theory of interest.
New York, The Macmillan
8vo, pp. X, [2], 228; faint toning and a little warping in the text block, but a good copy in
contemporary half percaline, marbled boards, lettering-piece renewed.
£220
First edition. Hoag’s theory of interest, a classic, cited in Fisher’s bibliography (11), was strongly
influenced by Böhm-Bawerk. The concept of value is at the centre of Hoag’s reflection on
economics. ‘If my theory is to be called by a brief name, it should be called the “nominal value
theory”, for the keystone of it is my conception of nominal value’ (preface).
Masui p. 1453.
18. HOBSON, John Atkinson. The evolution of modern capitalism.
machine production. London, Walter Scott, 1894.
A study of
8vo, pp. [2] advertisements, xiv, [2], 388 + [28] publisher’s catalogue; a very good copy in
the original publisher’s cloth, lettered in gilt; minute dent to spine, spine extremities a little
rubbed; bookplate of Andrew Carnegie to the front paste-down (his printed name erased but
the central panel intact).
£300
Andrew Carnegie’s copy of the first edition, ‘perhaps his best performance’ (Schumpeter p. 833) of
Hobson’s further reiteration of the underconsumptionist case first outlined in his earlier work, The
physiology of industry (1889). The present work identified Hobson as an economic heretic, a role
which he took up by broadening rather than narrowing his dissent from neo-classical analysis.
‘Hobson set out to expose the fallacies in classical political economy as expounded by John Stuart
Mill. Its central proposition was that trade depression was caused by a deficiency in effective demand
since it was the level of consumption in the immediate future which limited profitable production’
(The New Palgrave).
IESS (1894).
19. HOBSON, John Atkinson. Veblen ... London, Chapman & Hall, 1936.
8vo, pp. 227, [1]; a very good copy in the original publisher’s cloth, spine gilt lettered, with
the original dust-wrapper printed in red and blue, spine sunned, a few small dark marks to the
dust-jacket.
£100
First edition. Hobson first met Veblen when in the US following his marriage to Florence Edgar,
daughter of a New York attorney (Townshend, p. 4). Part of the series Modern Sociologists edited by
Professor Morris Ginsberg and Alexander Farquharson.
‘Thorstein Veblen’s criticisms of capitalist waste and capitalist standards of consumption attracted
Hobson. With American institutional economists of the period he shared a basic distrust of marginal
economics and a disposition to interpret all aspects of economic activity within the broader
framework of ethics and sociology’ (IESS).
Not in IESS. See ‘Selected Bibliography’ in Michael Freeden, J. A. Hobson: A Reader, London,
1988, p. 205 and Julia Townshend, J. A. Hobson, Manchester, 1990.
20. JEVONS, William Stanley. Political Economy. London, Macmillan & Co., 1878.
Small 8vo, pp. [3]–134 + 4 pp. advertisements, endpapers included in the pagination; some
light offsetting on the first and last leaves, else a clean copy in the original publisher’s cloth,
spine and covers direct lettered black.
£450
First edition, published as part of the series Science Primers, edited by Huxley, Roscoe, and Balfour
Stewart. American editions soon followed.
‘In preparing this little treatise, I have tried to put the truths of Political Economy into a form suitable
for elementary instruction … Owing to the narrow limits of the space at my disposal, it was
impossible to treat the whole of the science in a satisfactory way. I have, therefore, omitted some
parts of political economy altogether, and have passed over other parts very briefly. Thus the larger
portion of my space has been reserved for such subjects as Production, Division of Labour, Capital
and Labour, Trades-Unions, and Commercial Crises, which are most likely to be interesting and
useful to readers of this primer’ (preface). Despite this remark, Jevons manages to squeeze in some
fifteen subjects, as well as a ten-page introduction.
Inoue and White 169.
21. JEVONS, William Stanley. Methods of Social Reform and other papers. London,
Macmillan and Co., 1883.
8vo, pp. viii, 383, [1] blank; ink ownership inscription (dated 1885) to the half-title; some
light spotting to the half-title and final blank, other minor blemishes elsewhere; a nice copy,
uncut in the original publisher’s cloth, spine lettered gilt, slightly bumped at extremities.
£500
First edition. These essays were, with the exception of ‘The use and abuse of Museums’, previously
published in the Contemporary Review. The collection includes Jevons’s controversial essay ‘On the
United Kingdom Alliance and its prospects of success’, which was read to the Manchester Statistical
Society in 1876.
In this essay, Jevons expressed the opinion ‘that the United Kingdom Alliance is the worst existing
obstacle of temperance reform in the kingdom. It absorbs and expends the resources of the
temperance army on a hopeless siege, and by proclaiming no quarter it drives the enemy into fierce
opposition to a man’ (p. 247). The paper was the result of several years reflection upon the subject
and he saw no cause for changing his opinion, that in trying to pass a prohibitive Bill the Alliance
aimed at too much, and so hindered all reform.
Others essays include ‘The rationale of free public libraries’, ‘Married women in factories’, and
‘Cruelty to animals – a study in sociology’.
22. JEVONS, William Stanley. Letters and Journal ... Edited by his Wife. London,
Macmillan, 1886.
8vo, pp. xi, [1], 473, [1], [2] advertisements; with an engraved frontispiece portrait of Jevons
(included in the pagination); one or two light spots, otherwise a very good copy in the
original publisher’s hard grain cloth, spine lettered gilt, slight wear to extremities, front hinge
just cracking; bookplate ‘William Summers’ and ‘Presented to Toynbee Hall in memory of
harry Roberts’ to the front paste-down.
£180
First edition, with a nine-page appendix containing a bibliography of Jevons’s writings.
Einaudi 3065; Fundaburk 9724.
THE STOCK EXCHANGE
23. JEVONS, Herbert Stanley.
Macmillan & Co., 1905.
Essays on economics.
London and New York,
8vo, pp. xi, [1] blank, [4], 280; a good copy, rebound in recent buckram, spine lettered gilt,
inscribed ‘To J. David Thompson from the Author’ in pencil on the still-present original
front flyleaf.
£100
First edition of Herbert Stanley Jevons’ essays, on pleasure and pain, utility, labour, exchange and
capital, rent, and production, inscribed to his Chicago associate J.D. Thompson (see item 23). In the
introduction he mentions his father’s work in discussion of ‘the hedonic school’ of economics, whose
philosophy he invokes in his opening declaration: ‘The motive which underlies almost all the actions
of men is a desire to experience pleasure and avoid pain’ (p. 1). Herbert classifies his own argument
as ‘characteristic of the hedonic school’, but with a more than characteristically mathematical
treatment. Motivated by consideration for ‘the general reader’ he uses ‘graphic illustrations’ rather
than algebraic equations (pp. 14-15).
Batson, p. 140; Menger, col. 467.
‘THE ONLY CAUSE OF DEPRESSION IS PROSPERITY’
24. JUGLAR, Clément. Des crises commerciales et de leur retour périodique en France,
en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis … Paris, Guillaumin, 1889.
Large 8vo, pp. xx, 560; with 17 tables, mostly double-page, and 7 large folding tables at the
end; lightly toned, prelims lightly browned, else a very good copy in contemporary quarter
morocco, extremities rubbed, spine lettered gilt.
£950
Second edition, greatly enlarged, of the book that laid the foundation of modern business cycle
analysis. First published in 1862, Les crises commerciales is the principal work of a man whom
Schumpeter says ‘must be ranked, as to talent and command of scientific method, among the
greatest economists of all times’. Schumpeter bases his evaluation on three facts: ‘To begin with,
[Juglar (1819–1905)] was the first to use time-series material (mainly prices, interest rates, and central
bank balances) systematically and with the clear purpose in mind of analyzing a definite
phenomenon … Second, having discovered the cycle of roughly ten years’ duration that was most
obvious in his material – it was he who discovered the continent; islands near it several writers had
discovered before – he proceeded to develop a morphology of it in terms of “phases” … Third, he
went on to try his hand at explanation. The grand feature about this is the almost ideal way in which
“facts” and “theory” are made to intertwine … But all-important was his diagnosis of the nature of
depression, which he expressed with epigrammatic force in the famous sentence: “the only cause of
depression is prosperity”. This means that depressions are nothing but adaptations of the economic
system to the situations created by the preceding prosperities and that, in consequence, the basic
problem of cycle analysis reduces to the question what is it that causes prosperities … Economists
were at first slow to follow up Juglar’s lead. Later on, however, most of them, even those who were
more inclined than he was to commit themselves to particular hypotheses concerning “causes,”
adopted his general approach’ (History of Economic Analysis, pp. 1123–4).
Einaudi 3095.
25. LORIA, Achille. Analisi della proprietà capitalista … Opera che ottene il premio
reale per le scienze economiche. Volume primo, le leggi organiche della costituzione
economica [Volume secondo, le forme storiche della costituzione economica]. Turin
[Vincenzo Bona] for Fratelli Bocca, 1889.
2 vols, 8vo, pp. xviii [2], 777, [2, blank]; vi, [2], 474; mainly marginally a little browned due
to paper-stock; a good copy in contemporary red half cloth over marbled boards, spines
lettered in gilt; extremities a little rubbed.
£250
First edition of Loria’s materialist analysis of the present state of the capitalist economy and its
historical foundations.
Loria was professor of political economy at Siena and subsequently taught at the universities of Padua
and Turin. Influenced by a wide range of predecessors – the English classical school, Marx, Darwin,
the German historical school and Luigi Cossa, his teacher at Pavia – he developed a deterministic
theory of economic development and social history, the central thesis of which is that the historical
process is determined by the relationship between the productivity of land and the density of
population. Loria’s investigations of North American history had a considerable impact on
American historiography. In this extensive work Loria discusses theories of value, the nature of
profit, the impact of private property of land on the class system, distribution of wealth,
mechanization and division of labour, and in the second volume he presents a materialist history of
economics.
Einaudi 3503; Fundaburk 8223; Stammhammer II, p. 196.
WEAVING WEBER AND THŰNEN WITH NEW EMPHASIS ON DEMAND
26. LÖSCH, August. Die räumliche Ordnung der Wirtschaft. Eine Untersuchung über
Standort, Wirtschaftsgebiete und internationalen Handel. Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1940.
Large 8vo, pp. viii, 348, [4] advertisements; with the inscription ‘Meinem lieben Dr
Hoffman als bescheidene Gegengabe im Naturaltausch, vom Verfasser’ to the title,
slightly shaved; a fine copy in recent boards, with the original printed wrappers laid down,
gilt-lettered paper label to spine.
£1250
First edition of ‘one of the masterpieces of spatial economics, weaving together the classical theory of
Thünen and Weber with the newer emphasis on demand’ (Blaug, Who’s Who); it appeared in English
as the Economics of Location in 1954.
August Lösch (1906–1945) studied in Freiburg with Eucken and in Bonn with Schumpeter and
Spiethoff. Die räumliche Ordnung is his most important work, and ‘dealt, in most general terms, with
general equilibrium theory applied to space. Distance itself becomes the central phenomenon …
Lösch presents a Walrasian model with distance built in as a system of coordinates of location. His
most famous contribution, however, is the analysis of the structure of an economic landscape …
‘His is probably the most original book published on economics in the German language between the
two world wars. Most scholars would consider themselves lucky if they had added a few bricks to an
existing wall. Only few scholars can claim to have started a new wall, and even fewer to have started
a new building. Lösch is one of those few scholars’ (The New Palgrave).
27. MARSHALL, Alfred. Principles of Economics … Vol. 1 [all published]. London,
Macmillan and Co., 1890.
8vo, pp. xxviii, 754, [2, advertisements]; small marginal stain in pp. 100-103, otherwise a
very good copy, recently rebound in dark blue cloth, the original spine laid down, with new
endpapers; one or two short pen underlinings and a few competent and insightful marginal
annotations to the paragraphs explaining the notion of ‘cosmopolitan wealth’ and
‘productive’ and those on leisure and wages; ownership inscription (Daniel Bell, very
possibly the great American sociologist of capitalism, editor and writer author of The End of
Ideology, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society and The Cultural Contradictions of
Capitalism) to the half-title.
£2250
Scarce first edition, a copy bearing insightful annotations, of the work whose publication Keynes
described as one of the salient events from which the ‘modern age of British economics’ is to be dated
(Economic Journal, 1940)
In his preface Marshall sets out his position in relation to the mathematical economic school: ‘Under
the guidance of Cournot, and in a less degree of von Thünen, I was led to attach great importance to
the fact that our observations of nature, in the moral as in the physical world, relate not so much to
aggregate quantities, as to increments of quantities, and that in particular the demand for a thing is a
continuous function, of which the “marginal” increment is, in stable equilibrium, balanced against the
corresponding increment of its cost of production. … The chief use of pure mathematics in economic
questions seems to be in helping a person to write down quickly, shortly and exactly, some of his
thoughts for his own use: and to make sure that he has enough, and only enough, premises for his
conclusions (i.e. that his equations are neither more nor less in number than his unknowns). But when
a great many symbols have to be used, they become very laborious to any one but the writer himself.
… A few specimens of those applications of mathematical language which have proved most useful
for my own purposes have, however, been added in an appendix’ (pp. x-xi). Marshall’s twelve-page
mathematical appendix duly appears before the index.
Schumpeter wrote that ‘Marshall’s great work is the classical achievement of the period, that is, the
work that embodies, more perfectly than any other, the classical situation that emerged around 1900
… Behind the great achievement there is a still greater message. More than any other economist –
with the exception, perhaps, of Pareto – Marshall pointed beyond himself … Naturally his work is out
of date. But there is in it a living spring that prevents it from becoming stale’ (pp. 834, 840).
The ownership inscription in this copy points to the American sociologist Daniel Bell. Although the
identity of the owner cannot be confirmed, the few marginal annotations appear to confirm it: they are
meaningful reflections on concepts and paragraphs, particularly those relating to the leisure classes,
upon which the sociologist would draw in his milestone study of post-industrial and capitalist society.
Batson, p.146; Einaudi 3736; Fisher, p. 196; Keynes (33); Mattioli 2256.
WITH A PREFACE BY KEYNES
28. MARSHALL, Alfred.
Economic Society, 1926.
Official Papers …
London, Macmillan for the Royal
8vo, pp. vii, [1] blank, 428; a very good copy in the original publisher’s cloth, spine slightly
sunned, light wear to head and tail of spine; signature of D. Hale-Johnson to front pastedown.
£125
First collected edition of all the written memoranda and oral evidence Marshall prepared on economic
questions for government departments and official enquiries, with the exception of his work on the
Labour Commission. The collection was edited by Keynes, who provides a preface: ‘generally
speaking, the Memoranda and Minutes of Evidence have been printed in extenso and without
modification. A few misprints have been corrected, some passages from the Memoranda repeated in
the Minutes of Evidence have been omitted, and a verbal change has been made in accordance with
Marshall’s known wishes’ (Preface, p. [vi]).
Fundaburk 9846; Moggridge B 3.
WITH ORIGINAL CONTIBUTIONS FROM MISES, FISHER, COMMONS, SELIGMAN,
PIGOU, WICKSELL ET ALII
29. [SCHUMPETER et al.] MAYER, Hans, Frank A. FETTER and Richard REISCH,
editors. Die Wirtschaftstheorie der Gegenwart... Vienna, Verlag von Julius Springer,
1927-[1932].
Four volumes bound in two, 8vo, pp. x, [2], 280; [8], 413, [1]; [6], 341, [1]; [6], 375, [1];
bookseller’s stamps to the titles, else a clean copy in recent cloth, spines lettered gilt.
£250
First edition. An extraordinary international survey of contemporary economic theory, consisting
entirely of original contributions prepared for this project by most of the outstanding theorists of the
day. Included among the 81 contributors are: James Bonar, Edwin Cannan, John Bates Clark,
John R. Commons, Luigi Einaudi, Frank Albert Fetter, Irving Fisher, T.E. Gregory, E.W.
Kemmerer, Henry Higgs, Frank Knight, Erik Lindahl, Ludwig von Mises, A.C. Pigou, Joseph
Schumpeter, E.R.A. Seligman, Jacob Viner, and Knut Wicksell (on interest theory, his final work,
not listed in The New Palgrave).
In addition to surveys of economic theory in various countries (Schumpeter for Germany, Fetter for
the U.S., Higgs for England, Pirou for France, Galesnoff for Russia, Shirras for India, etc.) there are
many articles, generally substantial, devoted to such special topics as value, price, money and credit,
income, business cycles, foreign exchange, finance, and the economic theory of socialism. The
project, a mammoth task of international organization, editorial skill, and translation, was directed by
Hans Mayer, a disciple of the Austrian school - his dedication is to Fredrich von Wieser, recently
deceased - with the assistance of F.A. Fetter (also Austrian influenced) in America, and several others.
Schumpeter’s Deutschland is the first essay in this collection (vol. 1, pp 1-30). It was later reprinted
in the 1954 Dogmenhistorische und biographische Aufsätze.
Swedburg S145.
30. MENGER, Carl. Principii fondamantali di Economia. Con prefazione di Maffeo
Pantaleoni. Imola, Cooperativa Tipografica ed. Paolo Galeati, 1909.
Large 8vo, pp. xi, [1], 256, [1] errata; evenly lightly browned throughout; a very good copy,
in modern morocco, spine lettered in gilt.
£200
Scarce second Italian translation of Menger’s Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre, with a foreword
by Maffeo Pantaleoni; the first appeared in Rome in 1907, although without Pantaleoni’s foreword.
‘Carl Menger (1840–1921), economic theorist and founder of the Austrian school of marginal
analysis, was both the most influential and the least read of the major figures who gave economic
theory the shape it preserved from about 1885 to 1935 … Menger studied law at the universities of
Vienna and Prague, following which he entered the press section of the prime minister’s office in
Vienna … In that position, apparently as a result of having to write market reports, Menger
developed an interest in price theory. In his extensive reading, he found material in the early
nineteenth-century German and French economic literature on which to build a fully developed utility
analysis …
‘The results of Menger’s studies appeared in his Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre, the work on
which his fame mainly rests … In somewhat copious but always clear language, it provided a more
thorough account of the relations between utility, value, and price than is found in any of the works by
Jevons and Walras, who at about the same time laid the foundation of the “marginal revolution” in
economics’ (Friedrich von Hayek in IESS).
No copies located by OCLC; not in Cossa, Einaudi or Menger.
31. MISES, Ludwig von. The theory of money and credit. Translated from the German
by H.E. Batson. London, Jonathan Cape, 1934.
8vo, pp. 445, [3] blank; a clean, crisp copy, the lower edge uncut, in the original black cloth,
flat spine with gilt lettering; repair to head of spine, gilding a little faded; ownership
inscription (Edward J. P. Clarke) on the front free endpaper.
£750
First English edition of Von Mises's major work. It was in this work that von Mises succeeded in
integrating the theory of money into the marginal utility analysis of the Austrian School. ‘In addition,
by means of his regression theorem, he solved the marginal utility-price problem known as the
‘Austrian circle’; his theorem logically reduced the existence of money to its origin as a useful
commodity in the world of barter, its value there being determined by its marginal utility in use’
(IESS XVI, 379).
See M. N. Rothbard in The New Palgrave.
32. NORMAN, George Warde. Papers on various subjects. [London] Printed for
private circulation by T. & W. Boone, 1869.
8vo, pp. iv, 261, [1 blank]; some very light spotting to the endpapers and title-page, otherwise
a very clean copy; original green cloth, gilt lettering to spine; upper board a little marked;
inscribed ‘From the author’ and ‘Belper’ on front free endpaper.
£300
A very good association copy of this collection of fifty-two essays, letters and petitions by the
financial writer and merchant banker George Warde Norman (1793-1882), from the library of Edward
Strutt, first Baron Belper (1801-1880). The pieces collected here, many of which originally appeared
in The Spectator, The Times, The Economist, and The South Eastern Gazette, date from 1821 to 1869
and represent the wide range of political, economic and social questions with which Norman engaged
during his distinguished career.
Having cut his teeth in the timber trade, banking and insurance in his father’s firm, Norman became a
founder member of the Political Economy Club and a director of the Bank of England in 1821. His
advocacy of monetary reform foreshadowed the Bank Charter Act of 1844, which he actively
defended in subsequent financial crises. He was interested in taxation and free trade too, and, as a
friend of Nassau Senior, in the formulation of the new Poor Law. He was politically active in the City
of London and in West Kent, presiding over the West Kent Agricultural Association.
The papers printed here cover: market gardeners; arguments against the political economist Robert
Torrens on the ‘condition of England question’; the Poor Laws; the Reform Bill; the export of silver
to India; the money market; the Malt Tax; the 1866 monetary crisis (during which Norman disagreed
strongly with Walter Bagehot’s views of the Bank of England as the lender of last resort); questions of
nationality; the ownership of land in England; capital, labour, and the effect of Trade Unions on
wages; the middle classes; Ireland; and democratic government. There are also papers on defence and
the military, including the conduct of the Crimean War, in which Norman lost his eldest son.
Baron Belper, to whom this copy belonged, was close to Jeremy Bentham and to James and John
Stuart Mill, and, like Norman, a friend of George Grote. ‘Belper became a recognized authority on
questions of free trade, law reform, and education and earned the respect of many eminent
contemporaries, including Macaulay, John Romilly, McCulloch, John and Charles Austen, George
Grote, and Charles Buller’ (ODNB).
‘A LANDMARK’ (SCHUMPETER)
33. PANTALEONI, Maffeo. Principii di economia pura. Florence, G. Barbera, 1889.
Small 8vo, pp. 376; front free endpaper and first two leaves loose, even browning throughout,
as usual, a few small marks to the title; a good copy in the original embossed cloth,
extremities lightly rubbed.
£850
First edition. This important work, called ‘a landmark’ by Schumpeter, contributed to the
introduction of marginalist ideas into Italian economic thought. The work ‘is a classic of the
Mathematical School, and contains besides much new matter of the author’s, some previously
unpublished work of Marshall’s’ (Batson).
‘Enriched by Marshall’s apparatus of foreign and domestic trade (from his privately printed pamphlets
of 1879), it gave an important lead away from old and toward new things. In this consists its
importance … it is brilliantly written … and is still worth reading’ (Schumpeter, p. 857).
34. SAY, Léon. Les solutions démocratiques de la question des impots. Conférences
faites à l’École des science politiques … Tome premier [– second]. Paris, Guillaumin
et Cie, 1886.
Two vols, 8vo, pp. [iv], 260; [iv], 299, [1] blank; a fine copy, uncut in the original printed
wrappers, extremities a little soiled, spine of vol. II cracked and defective in places; with the
inscription ‘de la part de Leon Say’ to the half-title in vol. I.
£200
First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896), grandson of Jean-Baptiste Say, ‘became one of the most
prominent statesmen of the French Third Republic. He served as Finance Minister from 1872 to
1879, and again in 1882, overseeing the largest financial operation of the century – payment of war
reparations in Germany. His financial policies were directed toward a decrease in public expenditures
and the removal of barriers to internal trade. A brilliant speaker and debater, he railed against
socialism from the left and protectionism from the right … Upon leaving the Cabinet, Say returned to
his seat in parliament, assuming the leadership of the free trade party. He was at one time considered
for the presidency of the republic, but was gradually set apart from his constituency by a rising tide of
radicalism’ (The New Palgrave).
35. SCHABACKER, Richard Wallace, M.A. Stock market theory and practice … New
York, B. C. Forbes, 1930.
8vo, pp. xxix, [3], 875, [5] blank; with a fold-out frontispiece plan of the New York financial
district, two folding charts, 12 plates and a further 90 illustrations in the text; a very good
copy, in the original dark blue cloth, complete in the original orange dust-jacket.
£3250
First edition ‘of a comprehensive survey of current mechanism, practice, and theory, by the financial
editor of Forbes Magazine’ (Larson). Schabacker, the youngest financial editor of Forbes magazine,
published three major works on the stock market – considered ‘among the most influential ever
written on the technical side of the market’ by Schultz and Coslow – in his short life. This book, his
first, purposes to offer a complete background of basic knowledge with which to pursue market
activities. Schabacker says, ‘so long as he plays courageously fair with his sincere study … there
seems no reason why the average student should not reap the rewards of successful stock market
operation’.
The book also lays the foundations for technical analysis, a science which Schabacker helped develop
to a fuller extent in the more famed Technical Analysis and Stock Market Profits: A Course in
Forecasting (1932). The final 250 pages in particular leave no doubt that the author was a major
pioneer of the science. Here he documents important charting patterns in great detail. He also
discusses trends and support and resistance.
In addition to over a hundred handsome charts and illustrations, the volume includes twelve
appendices containing exhaustive statistics and historical records – including lists of the stocks and
bonds on the New York Stock Exchange, and the member firms of different stock exchanges
nationwide. The frontispiece gives a detailed map of the New York financial district. It is thus not
only its vastness, but also the levels of precision, care and empathy employed in its compilation which
make this such a highly esteemed work.
Dennistoun & Goodman 258; Larson 1598.
36. VEBLEN, Thorstein. Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in recent times.
The Case of America. New York, B. W. Huebsch, 1923.
8vo, pp. [8], 445, [1]; a very good copy in original publisher's cloth, spine lettered gilt; spine
extremities a little bumped, small chip to spine.
£100
First edition of Veblen’s most caustic work. In it, “he concluded that the forces of business-as-usual
and of national integrity were steadily coalescing ‘by night and cloud’ and that the continued
supremacy of business nationalism would probably lead to a renewal of the servile despotism
characteristic of earlier epochs” (IESS).
IESS (1923).
37. WALRAS, Marie Esprit Léon. Études d’économie sociale (Théorie de la
répartition de la richesse sociale). Lausanne and Paris, F. Rouge and F. Pichon,
1896.
8vo, pp. viii, 464; with 3 diagrams, one folding; very occasional pencil marginalia, edges
lightly browned, else a very good copy, resewn and recased into the original printed paper
wrappers, (backed), spine repaired.
£2750
First edition of one of Walras’s major contributions to his economico-social doctrine, based on
lectures which he held at the University of Lausanne between 1870 and 1892. ‘As far as pure theory
is concerned, Walras is in my opinion the greatest of all economists’ (Schumpeter in Blaug, Great
economists before Keynes, p. 264).
The congress on taxation in Lausanne in 1860, at which Walras read a paper, was a turning point in
his career. In the audience was Louis Ruchonnet, who later became chief of the department of
education of the Canton de Vaud and, in 1870, founded a chair of political economy at the faculty of
law of the University of Lausanne, which he offered to Walras. Walras found in Lausanne the peace
and security that enabled him to produce his most important work.
In this work, as well as in his Études d’économie politique appliquée (1898), Walras’s main interest in
pure theory (which he had earlier presented in Éléments d’économie politique pure, 1874–77), shifted
to issues of applied economics and social economics which actually was a revival of the activity he
began when he was young.
Einaudi 5970; Masui, 537; Mattioli 3800; Walker 183.
38. WALRAS, Marie Esprit Léon. Études d’économie sociale (Théorie de la
Répartition de la Richesse sociale). Lausanne and Paris, Rouge and Pichon &
Durand-Auzias, 1936.
8vo, pp. viii, [2], 488; with a portrait of the author and three plates; a very good copy, uncut
and unopened in plain paper wrappers, small chip to foot of spine.
£250
This, the second, definitive edition differs from the first (1896) in containing the ‘Souvenirs du
Congrès de Lausanne’.
Walker 213. For the first edition, see Einaudi 5970.
WEBER’S FIRST WORK, IN THE VERY RARE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS
39. WEBER, Max. Zur Geschichte der Handelsgesellschaften im Mittelalter. Nach
südeuropäischen Quellen. Stuttgart, Enke, 1889.
8vo, pp. viii, 170 ; head of spine slightly damaged; joints with minimal splits; title-page with
slight trace of removed small label; minimal stains on final pages; extremities trimmed; pages
clean and crisp; in the rare original publisher’s wrappers.
£12,500
First edition. The first work, in fact the doctoral dissertation, written by the co-founder of modern
sociology, Max Weber. In this work Weber, ‘one of the most powerful personalities that ever entered
the scene of academic science’ (Schumpeter, 817n), ‘examined the various legal principles according
to which the cost, risk or profit of an enterprise were to be borne jointly by several individuals’
(Bendix, p. 25), moving from the analysis of records from the Middle Ages.
After early studies in the history of commercial law, Weber established himself as one of the leading
figures in a new generation of historical political economists in the Germany of the 1890’s. He was
appointed to chairs in political economy at Freiburg in 1894 and at Heidelberg in 1896. In 1904 he
took over the editorship of the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, the leading academic
journal in ‘social economics’, devoted to the exploration of the interrelationship between economics
on the one hand, and law, politics and culture on the other. ‘This interconnection formed the main site
of Weber’s own research, whose focus became increasingly wide-ranging and theoretical, involving
an elucidation of the character and presuppositions of modern Western rationalism, as applied to the
basic structures of economy and society’ (The New Palgrave, 4, p.886-7).
Like most doctoral dissertations, this work is extremely rare on the market, especially, as here, in the
original wrappers.
MacRae, Weber, p. 94; see Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: an intellectual portrait (London,
Heinemann, 1960).
40. WEBER, Max. Die römische Agrargeschichte in ihrer Bedeutung für das Staats- und
Privatrecht. Stuttgart, Ferdinand Enke, 1891.
8vo, pp. viii, 284 + 2 diagrams; a very good copy in contemporary half cloth, lightly rubbed,
spine lettered gilt.
£650
First edition. This is Weber’s second work and gained him while still in his twenties the right to
lecture on law at the University of Berlin. In it, ‘by examining the methods of land surveying in
Roman society, the different terms used to designate the resulting land units, and the extant writings
on agriculture by Roman authors, Weber analysed the social, political and economic development of
Roman society’ (Bendix, Max Weber: an intellectual portrait, p. 26). While or shortly after
producing this historical treatise for his Habilitation, Weber studied contemporary agricultural
relationships in eastern Germany, publishing in 1892 the 890-page Die Verhältnisse der Landarbeiter
im ostelbischen Deutschland. His research into the forms of Roman agricultural and specifically slave
labour and into the tendency of land requiring capital investment to form part of large estates with a
servile workforce rather than to remain as small peasant holdings found reflection in the later book.
The primary sources of Die römishe Agrargeschichte are the Roman agricultural writers Columella
and Cato.
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Recent Catalogues:
1431 Travel & Exploration, Natural History
1430 Philosophy, Politics, Economics
1429 Continental Books
1428 In the scribe’s hand: Islamic manuscripts
Recent Lists:
2015/5 The Library of Robert Ball: Part I
2015/4 Autograph letters and manuscripts of economists, philosophers, statesmen &c.
2015/3 From the Library of Cosmo Alexander Gordon
2015/2 English Books New Acquisitions Spring 2015
2015/1 Money: an Idea transformed by Use
Forthcoming Catalogue: 1432 Continental Books