PremièRe Introduction à La Philosophie éConomique; Ou Analyse Des Etats PolicéS. Par Un Disciple De L'ami Des Hommes Baudeau Abbe Nicolas.

First edition. 8vo. 8, [ix]-xii, 497, [3, 'Approbation'] pp. Near contemporary quarter calf with marbled paper covered boards, spine with five single raised bands outlined in gilt, second panel lettered in gilt on brown morocco label, the rest with decorative gilt stamps, red edges (bookplate of Thor Ekecrantz to front pastedown, a few instances of faint spotting and small areas of browning occasionally throughout, faint marking and browning to title page, marking to margins of p. iv, small area dampstaining to pp. 3-4, small hole to fore margin of pp. 223-4, faint dampstain to lower corner of final two leaves; neat repair to headcap, joints rubbed, corners gently bumped). Paris, Didot, Delalain, Lacombe. An important introduction to physiocratic doctrine by the Abbé Nicolas Baudeau (1730-1792), described by the great Italian economist Luigi Cossa as 'a compendious statement of Quesnay's views which, for clearness as well as for certain touches of originality, is far superior to anything from the pen of Mirabeau, Du Pont de Nemours, or Le Mercier de la Rivière' (An Introduction to the Study of Political Economy, p. 262). Schumpeter lists the Première Introduction as one of the four principal textbooks of physiocrat orthodoxy, writing: 'The Abbé Nicolas Baudeau (1730-92) began as an enemy [of physiocracy] but had his day of Damascus in 1766 and from then on proved a most useful populariser and controversialist as well as an efficient editor' (History of Economic Analysis, p. 225). Higgs 5158 ('The best of his works'); Kress S.4657; not in Goldsmiths'.