£504
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 792
Auction: 19 June 2024 from 10:00 BST
London: Charles Knight, 1832. First edition, 8vo, xvi 320 pp., original diagonal-fine-ribbed maroon moiré cloth, title gilt to spine within geometric panel, engraved title-page incorporating medallion portrait of Roger Bacon, advertisement leaf to rear, bookseller's ticket to front pastedown, shallow loss to head and foot of spine, front joint cracked and front board remaining attached to spine by single cord, rear joint cracked but remaining firm, corners worn, covers slightly faded and with a few marks, old ink-stain and a few spots to title-page, dedication leaf with upper outer corner excised (leaving contemporary ownership inscription ‘Hannah Tayler’ below) [Hook & Norman, Origins of Cyberspace, 42]
Uncommon first edition of the author's most successful work. ‘Economy was a product of a conscientious and detailed survey of factories and workshops in England and on the continent prompted by the demands for precision in the construction of his first calculating engine. The work is not a thesis on macroeconomic theory but an encyclopaedic record of craft, manufacturing, and industrial processes, as well as an analysis of the domestic organization of factories. He advocated the decimalization of currency, foresaw the role of tidal power as an energy source, and predicted the exhaustion of coal reserves, later commenting that if posterity failed to find a substitute for coal then it deserved to be frostbitten. Economy was a turning point in economic writing and firmly established Babbage as a leading authority of the industrial movement’ (ODNB).