An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy:

First Edition of the masterpiece from this important proto-economist. “Sir James Steuart had the misfortune to be followed by Adam Smith in less than a decade. Otherwise [Steuart’s Inquiry] would probably have served as the standard English economic text” (Carpenter). Its later influence “proved to be most considerable on the continent. During the 1770s the text was translated into German (twice), and into French in 1789. One authority has noted that ‘until the final decade of the eighteenth century, Sir James Steuart's Inquiry was better known and more frequently cited than Smith's Wealth of Nations’ (Tribe, 133). The admiration of the members of the nineteenth-century German historical school is now well known. Steuart's historical and cosmopolitan perspective later attracted the well-documented attention of Marx, while it is known that Hegel spent some three months studying one of the German editions. But perhaps the most intriguing link is with North America. The Dublin edition of the Inquiry (1770) was widely circulated in the colonies. The book also attracted the attention of Alexander Hamilton, whose protectionist position was adopted with a view to counterbalancing the competitive advantages of the British economy in the years following the treaty of Paris (1783)” (ODNB).

2 volumes, 4to (280 × 220 mm). 2 errata leaves. 2 folding letterpress tables. Contemporary sprinkled calf, neatly rebacked and cornered to style. Bookplates of David Barclay, dated 1796; Hudson Gurney; and John Henry Gurney presenting the book to Norfolk & Norwich Library in 1903, with Norfolk & Norwich Library labels at head of front covers (no other library marks). Errata leaf at the of vol. II mounted, short marginal tear to leaf Oooo4 in vol. II, a little spotting, a very good copy.