ANDERSON James
£1,900
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Observations on the means of exciting a spirit of national industry, chiefly intended to promote the agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and fisheries of Scotland in a series of letters to a friend ... 1st edition, pp. [ii], xli, [i] of errata, [ii], 534, including the half-title and addenda, contemporary tree calf, spine rubbed, joints a little worn, occasional light spotting, 4to., Edinburgh: for Thomas Cadell, London; and Charles Ellliot, Edinburgh, 1777
Note: Einaudi 117; Goldsmiths' 11528; Kress B.5; Schumpeter p.263ff; Palgrave I,p.39-40 & III,p.287.
James Anderson was a Scottish gentleman farmer and author of several works on rural economy, the corn trade and similar subjects, is credited for his anticipation in th present work of the the Ricardian theory of rent, the first clear formulation of the law of diminishing returns. "The association of rent with decreasing returns which was to be one of the most characteristic features of the Ricardian system, was established by Anderson" (Schumpeter). These volumes also contain contain one of the earliest criticisms of Adam Smith's Wealth of nations... Schumpeter considered Anderson as "one of the most interesting English economists of the late eighteenth century ... he had to an unusual degree what so many economists lack, Vision." The first edition appears to be rare and is complete here with both the half-title and the addenda pages.