QUARITCH MODERN ECONOMICS SERIES I

BöhmBawerk, 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.

BöhmBawerk, 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 LITTLEKNOWN PIONEER 1. AGAZZINI, Michele. La science de l’économie politique. Paris, London, Bossange, 1822 .

8vo, pp. xv, [1], 389, [1] + 13 plates, 1 engraved, 12 folding; a few small marks, short tear (without loss) at head of the halftitle; 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 period he was able, unlike some colleagues, to continue working in Italy. His Principii , written during this period, has discussions of and equilibrium quite free from political implications and, in the third part, an economic theory of stated in analytical terms, which remains within the of economic science’ ( Who’s Who in Economics ).

PRESENTATION COPY 3. BÖHMBAWERK, 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 Böhm Bawerk: 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 theory, by one of most important leaders of the of economics . BöhmBawerk’s thoughts on capital and interest also exerted great influence on American economists , particularly Irving Fisher. On the relationship between BöhmBawerk’s thought and modern economists, Hennings states that ‘the neoclassical part of his (BöhmBawerk’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, ‘BöhmBawerk 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, Böhm Bawerk 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 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 ’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 proofsheets 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 , 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 and the ; 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 mid20thcentury American social reform, the 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. Outlines of Economic Theory. New York & London, Macmillan & Co., 1896.

8vo, pp. xii, [2], 381, [1] blank; Australian bookseller’s ticket to the front pastedown; short tear to the foremargin 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 dustsoiling to p. 1, else clean and crisp copy bound in contemporary black cloth for Pomona College, flat spine with a red gilt letteringpiece; extremities a little bumped. £275

First edition of Edgeworth’s threepart study, occupying pp. 3550, 424443 and 606638. 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).

9. EDGEWORTH, Francis Ysidro [and Irving FISHER, see below]. 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.

Large 8vo, pp. VIII, 660, 58; 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 letteringpiece; head of spine a little worn, label rubbed. £220

First edition of Edgeworth’s threepart study (p. 4670, 226238 and 550571). This volume also contains two articles by Irving Fisher: Senses of capital (pp. 199213), and The role of capital in economic theory (pp. 511537). ‘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 , 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. 211212).

STARTINGLY ORIGINAL (BLAUG) 10. FISHER, Irving. Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of 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. 1124); 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 letteringpieces. £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 . 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 E8.

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, BöhmBawerk, Landry and others. He later dedicated the revised and retitled version (1930) to Rae and Böhm Bawerk. 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 savinginvestment 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 BöhmBawerk 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, M169; 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 halftitle 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 BöhmBawerk , 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 E1539; 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; 12page 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 titlepage . 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 socalled ‘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. Principles of scientific purchasing. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1928.

8vo, pp. xxi, [1] blank, 301, [1]; a very good copy bound in the original publisher’s blind stamped cloth; spine directlettered 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 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. viiiix). For the first edition, see IESS 1931 (b).

17. HOAG, Clarence Gilbert. A theory of interest. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914.

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, letteringpiece renewed. £220

First edition. Hoag’s theory of interest, a classic, cited in Fisher’s bibliography (11), was strongly influenced by BöhmBawerk. 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. A study of machine production. London, Walter Scott, 1894.

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 pastedown (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 neoclassical analysis. ‘Hobson set out to expose the fallacies in classical political economy as expounded by . 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 dustwrapper printed in red and blue, spine sunned, a few small dark marks to the dustjacket. £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, TradesUnions, 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 tenpage 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 halftitle; some light spotting to the halftitle 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 pastedown. £180

First edition, with a ninepage appendix containing a bibliography of Jevons’s writings. Einaudi 3065; Fundaburk 9724.

THE STOCK EXCHANGE 23. JEVONS, Herbert Stanley. Essays on economics. London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1905.

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 stillpresent 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. 1415). 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 EtatsUnis … Paris, Guillaumin, 1889.

Large 8vo, pp. xx, 560; with 17 tables, mostly doublepage, 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 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 timeseries 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 allimportant 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 paperstock; 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 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 , the impact of private 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, giltlettered 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. 100103, 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 halftitle. £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. xxi). Marshall’s twelvepage 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 postindustrial and capitalist society. Batson, p.146; Einaudi 3736; Fisher, p. 196; Keynes (33); Mattioli 2256.

WITH A PREFACE BY KEYNES 28. MARSHALL, Alfred. Official Papers … London, Macmillan for the Royal Economic Society, 1926.

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. HaleJohnson 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 , Han s, 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, , A.C. Pigou, , 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 . 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 130). 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 nineteenthcentury 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 utilityprice 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 titlepage, 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 fiftytwo essays, letters and petitions by the financial writer and merchant banker George Warde Norman (17931882), from the library of Edward Strutt, first Baron Belper (18011880). 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 and a director of the 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 . ‘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 halftitle in vol. I. £200

First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896), grandson of JeanBaptiste 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 from the right … Upon leaving the Cabinet, Say returned to his seat in parliament, assuming the 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. theory and practice … New York, B. C. Forbes, 1930.

8vo, pp. xxix, [3], 875, [5] blank; with a foldout 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 dustjacket. £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 businessasusual and of national integrity were steadily coalescing ‘by night and cloud’ and that the continued supremacy of business 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 economicosocial 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; titlepage 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 cofounder of modern sociology, . 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 wideranging 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.8867). 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 890page 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. ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ 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