DAVENANT, Charles.

£3,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Discourses on the Publick Revenues, and on the Trade of England. In two Parts. First edition of this important early work on economics. Sir Charles Davenant (1656-1714), MP and, at the end of his life, Inspector-General of Exports and Imports, took many years to become recognized as an economist of the first rank, a fact explained by the sophistication of his thought. Part I of the present Discourses contains five essays, on "Political Arithmetic" (described by Schumpeter as treating its subject with "unsurpassable fairness"), credit, and other matters of public finance. Part II contains essays on trade. The Essay on the East-India Trade was first published in 1696.Schumpeter classifies the "impressive total" of Davenant's contributions to economic analysis under four heads: "(1) there is, implicit but clear, behind all his writings the awareness of the logic of the relations by which things economic hang together;... (2) he substantially improved... his epoch's acquirements in the theories of money and of international trade and finance; (3) he was one of the first authorities of his time on public finance - taxes, debts, and so on; (4) he was one of the few who understood, and co-operated in, the work of Political Arithmetick" (History of Economic Analysis, p. 211)."Davenant's position in the history of economics rests on a variety of contributions. Initially, his work was largely depicted as typically that of an 'adherent of the mercantile theory'... but 'Tory free trader'

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