![Sample our Economics, Finance,Business & Industry journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5931/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Economics-Finance-Business-Industry.jpg"})
Abstract
This article looks at 33 economics books that were published before 1750 and appeared in ten editions or more before 1850. This is a period – before Physiocracy and before the works of Adam Smith – which has been largely neglected in the history of economic thought. The article sheds new light on the early bestselling contributions of German and Italian economists, and on an internationally famous Spanish economist at the time. Also of interest is that three of the bestselling English economists of the period are so forgotten that they do not even have an entry in Wikipedia.
Notes
1 Carpenter, Kenneth E. 1975. The Economic Bestsellers Before 1850. A Catalogue for an Exhibition, Cambridge MA: Kress Library, Harvard Business School.
2 Reinert, Erik S., Kenneth Carpenter, Fernanda Reinert, and Sophus Reinert. 2017. “80 Economic Bestsellers Before 1850: A Fresh Look at the History of Economic Thought.” The Other Canon Foundation and Tallinn University of Technology Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics, No. 74, 2017. http://technologygovernance.eu/eng/the_core_faculty/working_papers/
3 For a discussion of this phenomenon, see Reinert, Erik S. 2009. “Emulating Success: Contemporary Views of the Dutch Economy before 1800.” In The Political Economy of the Dutch Republic, edited by Gelderblom, Oscar, pp. 19–40. Aldershot, Ashgate.
4 Cole’s own research is represented in the bibliography of item XXIV.
5 The Kress Library of Business and Economics, founded upon the collection of books made by Herbert Somerton Foxwell, M.S., F.B.A, late of St. John’s College, Cambridge, England, Publication Number 1 of the Kress Library of Business and Economics, Baker Library, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, Boston, Massachusetts, 1939. Today the collection is integrated in the Historical Collections at Baker Library.
6 Foxwell’s first collection is now the Goldsmiths’ Collection at the University of London. On Foxwell and Kress Library, see Reinert, Erik S. and Kenneth Carpenter. 2014. “German Language Economic Bestsellers before 1850, with two chapters on a common reference point of Cameralism and Mercantilism.” In The Other Canon Foundation and Tallinn University of Technology Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics, No. 58; Rössner, Philipp (ed.). 2016. Economic Reason of State. Reconfiguring the Origins of Modern Political Economy, 1500–2000 A.D., pp. 26–53. London: Routledge. On Foxwell, see also Keynes’ loving obituary, “Herbert Somerton Foxwell”, in Economic Journal, December 1916. Also published as chapter 17 in The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. Vol. X. Essays in Biography, 266–296.
7 McCraw, Thomas. 1991. “Schumpeter Ascending.” The American Scholar 60 (3): 386.
8 For this reason, a detailed account of Schröder’s influential and partly controversial work, with two illustrations, is contained in Reinert and Carpenter (2016).
9 Pufendorf was residing in Sweden when his book was published.
10 For an overview of these practical manuals, see Carpenter, Kenneth. 2011. “Manufactures in European Economic Literature of the Enlightenment: The Descriptions des Arts et Métiers and the Schauplatz der Künste und Handwerke.” In Physiocracy, Antiphysiocracy and Pfeiffer, edited by Backhaus, Jürgen Georg, pp. 5–21. New York: Springer.
11 This point is presently made at an ehibition honouring Hamilton at the US National Postal Museum in Washington DC. https://local.washingtoncitypaper.com/event/national-postal-museum/alexander-hamilton-soldier-secretary-icon-cl
12 The technical cut-off point between a book and a pamphlet seems to vary. The US Census of Manufacturers considers bound publications up to 49 pages as pamphlets, anything above that is considered a book. In the case of unbound books, The New York Public Library traditionally used 90 pages as the cut-off point between pamphlets and books.
13 Cole, Arthur H. 1949. The Great Mirror of Folly (Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid): An Economic-Bibliographical Study (Kress Library Publication #6). Boston: Harvard Business School.
14 Several of the books on the list were published anonymously, but their authors are now known.
15 Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. See also a work by Hont’s students, Kapossy, Béla, Isaac Nakhimovsky, and Richard Whatmore (eds.). 2017. Commerce and Peace in the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Reinert, Sophus A. 2011. Translating Empire: Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
16 Lin, Justin Yifu. 2012. New Structural Economics: A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy, p. 350. Washington DC, World Bank Publications.
17 This principle is discussed in Reinert, Erik S. 2009. “Emulation vs. Comparative Advantage: Competing and Complementary Principles in the History of Economic Policy.” In Industrial Policy and Development; The Political Economy of Capabilities Accumulation, edited by Cimoli, Mario, Giovanni Dosi and Joseph Stiglitz, pp. 79–106. New York: Oxford University Press.
18 We have attempted to bring these authors, their national traditions, and the role of emulation to the forefront in the recent Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development, Reinert, Erik, Jayati Ghosh & Rainer Kattel (eds.), Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, 2016. Chapter 1. Erik Reinert: Giovanni Botero (1588) and Antonio Serra (1613): “Italy and the birth of development economics”, 3–41, Chapter 2: Sophus A. Reinert. “Economic emulations and the politics of international trade in Early Modern Europe”, 42–62; and Chapter 3: Erik Reinert and Philipp Rössner, “Cameralism and the German tradition of development economics”, 63–86. The book has 40 chapters.
19 Trace, Jamie. 2018. “Giovanni Botero and English Political Thought.” Unpublished Ph.D.
20 Hamilton, Earl. 1932. “Spanish Mercantilism before 1700”. In Facts and Factors in Economic History, Articles by former Students of Edwin Francis Gay, pp. 214–239. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. See also Hamilton’s article under Uztàriz (XXVII).
21 Perrotta, Cosimo. 1993. “Early Spanish Mercantilism: The First Analysis of Underdevelopment.” In Mercantilist Economics, edited by Magnusson, Lars, pp. 17–58. Boston: Kluwer.
22 Berch was the first professor of economic outside Germany, at the University of Uppsala.
23 Macedo (1675). See also his Obras, Lisboa: Antonio Isidoro da Fonseca, 1743. 2 vols. For an overview of the period, see also Castro, Armando. 1978. Doutrinas economicos em Portugal (séc. XVI–XVIII, Lisboa: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura).
24 On Macedo, see Ana Maria Homem Leal de Faria. 2005. Duarte Ribeiro de Macedo. Um Diplomata Moderno (1618–1680). Lisboa: Biblioteca Diplomática do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros.
25 Botero, Giovanni. Ragion di stato. p. 152.
26 Uztáriz in the 1751 English translation, vol 1, p. 9.
27 Berch, Anders (1747). Inledning til Almänna Hushålningen, innefattande Grunden til Politie, Oeconomie och Cameralwetenskaperna, Stockholm: Lars Salvius, p. 216.
28 As of April 2017.
29 Some of Carpenter’s data on the translation of economics texts are now deposited at https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/32307786
30 Source: Kenneth Carpenter, published in Reinert, Sophus A. 2011. Translating Empire: Emulation and the Origins of Political Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 46.
31 Source: Kenneth Carpenter, published in S. Reinert 2011, op.cit, p. 52.
32 See S. Reinert 2011, op. cit.
33 Whose 1668 book opens with a statement about the need to learn from the Dutch.
34 Ambirajan, S., “The Concepts of Happiness, Ethics, and Economic Values in Ancient Economic Thought.” In Price, op. cit., p. 32. The chapter also looks at ancient Indian economic thinking from the same perspective.
35 See Baron, Hans. 1928. Leonardo Bruni Aretino. Humanistisch-Philosophische Schriften. Leipzig & Berlin: B.G. Teubner. For an overview of the period, see Baron. 1955. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
36 Zincke, Georg Heinrich. 1753. Xenophons Buch von den Einkünften, oder dessen Vorschláge, wie das bereiteste Vermögen grosser Herren und Staaten nach ächten Grund-Sätzen des Finanz-Wesens zu vermehren. Wolfenbüttel & Leipzig: Meitzner.
37 However, an attempt is made in Reinert (2016), p. 17.
38 E. Reinert (2016) outlines many unseen influences from Botero on early economics. When Edward Misselden and Gerard de Malynes argued fiercely about trade in their works in 1622 and 1623, we recognize Misselden’s argument about value added by human ingenuity as compared to raw materials as coming straight out of Botero. The same applies to the works of such diverse authors as Sir Walter Raleigh and Anders Berch, the first professor of economics outside Germany (in Uppsala in the early 1740s). Also in the 1730 folio work in Swedish by Andreas Bachmanson (alias Nordencrantz, Anders), Arcana Oeconomiae et Commercii (Stockholm, Horrn), there are strong similarities to Botero even in the page layout (in what the Germans call the Satzspiegel). Copying without proper citation was of course the usual practice of the day.
39 Tre discorsi appartenenti alla grandezza delle città, l’uno di M. Lodovico Guicciardini [Delle cause della grandezza d’Anversa], l’altro di M. Claudio Tolomei [Delle qualità che deve havere un sito d’una città], il terzo di M. Giovanni Botero [Che numero di gente facesse Roma nel colmo della sua grandezza], raccolti da M. Giovanni Martinelli, Rome, G. Martinelli, 1588.
40 Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie. 1978. Early Economic Thought in Spain 1177–1740. London; Allen & Unwin, p. 108.
41 For a discussion of the Lund editions, see Collijn, Isak. 1942–46. Sveriges Bibliografi, 1600-talet: Bidrag till en Bibliografisk förteckning. Uppsala: Svenska Litteratursällskapet.
42 As usual, the year of the first translation is indicated in parenthesis.
43 A list of editions is provided in Reinert and Carpenter 2016.
44 Hörnigk’s nine-point list is reproduced as appendix V in Reinert, Erik S. 2007. How Rich Countries Got Rich…And Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, 313–316. London: Constable.
45 The same work under yet another title, Mémoires Pour Servir au Rétablissement Général des Affaires en France, ou Par Occasion on Fait Voir les Causes de sa Décadence, was published anonymously in Villefranche (chez Pierre & Jean) in 1697. We are unable to find more than three copies of this edition, none of them in France.
46 References are from Reinert, Sophus A. 2011. Translating Empire.
47 In the journal Pontoppidan edited. Danmark og Norges Oeconomiske Magazin, Preface to Vol. 1, 1757 (our translation).
48 Verri, Pietro. 1771. Meditazioni sulla economia. Genova: Ivone Gravier, p. 42, emphasis added. For a discussion of this subject in today’s context, see Reinert, Erik. 2013. “Civilizing Capitalism: Good and Bad Greed From the Enlightenment to Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929).” Real-World Economics Review 63: 57–72, http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue63/reinert63.pdf
50 King, Charles. 1721. The British Merchant or Commerce Preserv’d. London: John Darby, 3 Vols., Vol. 1, p. 3.
51 In more modern theory, this point is emphasized by Graham, Frank D. 1923. “Some Aspects of Protection Further Considered.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 37 (2): 199–227. Erik Reinert’s PhD. thesis International Trade and the Economic Mechanisms of Underdevelopment, Cornell University, 1980, tests Serra’s and Graham’s propositions empirically.
52 King also entered into a disagreement with Daniel Defoe (of Robinson Crusoe fame). Defoe’s A Plan of the English Commerce: Being a Compleat (sic) Prospect of the Trade of this Nation, As Well the Home Trade as the Foreign (London: Printed for Charles Rivington, 1728) was published in several editions contributing to the virtually unknown, but ferocious debate on English trade policy at the time (see also S. Reinert, 2011).
53 In this work, the colums (two per page) are numbered rather than the pages. In addition to the preliminary materials, Vol 1 contains 2002 numbered colums on 1001 pages, vol. 2 1956 columns on 978 pages, and Vol. 3, the supplement, 1316 columns on 658 pages.
54 The 1750 Geneva edition version of this work, in 6 volumes, also contains Le Parfait négociant.
55 McCulloch, John R. 1964. The Literature of Politcal Economy [1845], New York, Kelley, 1964, p. 61.
56 Hamilton, Earl J. 1935. “The Mercantilism of Géronimo de Uztáriz.” In Economies, Sociology and the Modern World, edited by Norman E. Himes, 126–128. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
58 The Danish translation of Melon (XXIX) claims that the Copenhagen imprint of the German edition of that work is false, and that the place of publication actually was Leipzig. That a text in German may have been published in Copenhagen is not entirely unlikely. At the time German was the Amtssprache (“administrative language”) in Denmark. Some of Justi’s important books appear to have been first published in Copenhagen, but this may of course be a false imprint as was so common at the time.
59 Dublin, William Hallhead. 1779. For the reproduction of a second edition (Dublin, M. H. Gill & Son, 1882), see http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38841/38841-h/38841-h.htm
60 Ordered by the first translation to appear in each language.
61 For a list of Justi’s work in this category, see Reinert, Erik S. and Kenneth Carpenter. 2016. “German Language Economic Bestsellers Before 1850, With Two Chapters on a Common Reference Point of Cameralism and Mercantilism.” In Economic Reason of State. Reconfiguring the Origins of Modern Political Economy, 1500–2000 A.D., edited by Philipp Rössner, pp. 26–53. London: Routledge.
62 See Reinert, Erik S. and Hugo Reinert. 2009. “A Bibliography of J.H.G. von Justi.” In The Beginnings of Political Economy: Johann Friedrich Gottlob von Justi, edited by Jürgen Backhaus, pp. 19–31. New York: Springer.
63 Adapted from http://www.hetwebsite.net/het/profiles/tucker.htm
64 6 issues, Stockholm, tryckt hos Lorens Ludvig Grefing, 1767–1770.
65 London, printed for A. Millar, and T. Cadell, 1767, Vol. 1:430, 435–36.
66 As always, the year of first translation into the respective languages in parenthesis.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Erik S. Reinert
E. Reinert, Tallinn University of Technology & The Other Canon Foundation, Norway, F. Reinert, The Other Canon Foundation, Norway. This work is based on decades of painstaking work by librarian Kenneth Carpenter at the Kress Library of Harvard Business School. The authors are also grateful to Dr. Debra Wallace, Managing Director, Baker Library Services and Laura Linard, Director of Baker Library Special Collections, at Harvard Business School, where the Historical Collection now houses what was once the Kress Library, for their cooperation in this venture. Our thanks also go to Olga Mikheeva at Tallinn University of Technology for her very efficient research assistance. Antiquarian book dealers often have more information on economics books than do academics, and our thanks go to Wilhelm Hohmann in Stuttgart, Robert H. Rubin in Brookline MA, Elvira Tasbach in Berlin, and, above all, to Ian Smith in London. We are also grateful for advice from Richard van den Berg, Francesco Boldizzoni, Patrick O’Brien, Alexandre Mendes Cunha, Bertram Schefold, Arild Sæther and two anonymous referees. Corresponding author [email protected]. This research was partially supported by the Estonian Research Council Grant IUT19-13