PETTY, William.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Treatise of Taxes & Contributions. First edition of Petty's first economic treatise, published as a contribution to the discussions over raising and spending government revenue in the aftermath of the Restoration, and comprising a significant original contribution to economics: "one of the handful of first-rate economic treatises and a classic on its subject" (Strauss, p. 176)."Far from making any claim to scientific detachment, it contains a devastating attack on his bêtes noires, the parasites on the body politic, primarily the clergy and the lawyers, but its greatest achievement is his searching treatment of the main problems of scientific economics. The book is brimful of brilliant ideas" (ibid.). The work posits theories of value and wages, of profit or surplus (in effect a theory of rent), of interest, and of foreign exchange, alongside a discussion of the value of land.

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