POSTLETHWAYT, Malachy. The Universal dictionary of trade and commerce, translated from the French of the celebrated monsieur Savary: with large additions and improvements, incorporated throughout the whole work; which more particularly accommodate the same to the trade and navigation of these kingdoms, and the laws, customs, and usages, to which all traders are subject. London, printed for John and Paul Knapton, 1751-55.
Folio, two volumes, pp. (8), v-xiv, 164, 169-408, 421-596, 613-1017, (1) publisher's advertisements; xxii, 856; with engraved frontispiece to vol. 1, 24 folding engraved maps and 26 folding letterpress tables; title printed in red and black, text printed in double columns; the preface to the second volume (pp. ix-xxii) misbound in the initial volume; tears in the two dedication leaves with minor damage, one line cropped from a letterpress table on p. 199 of vol. 1 (due to the extended imposition); otherwise a very good crisp copy, bound without the leaves of directions to the binder (as often) in contemporary sheep, spine gilt in compartments, lightly rubbed, covers with some light scratches, spines restored at head and tail. Goldsmiths 8594; Higgs 11; Kress 5157.
First edition of the monumental dictionary. Published in instalments over the interval 1751-5, it “purported to be a translation of Jacques Savary’s Dictionnaire universal du commerce, but as Schumpeter noted, it was really much more” (William Darity, in New Palgrave). Though without acknowledgement, this is the first appearance in England of the substantial portions from Cantillon’s Essay sur la nature du commerce en general.
¥990000
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