Subjects
Mercantilist Theory and Practice:
The History of British Mercantilism
Editor: Lars Magnusson
978 1 85196 927 2: 234x156mm: £395.00/$750.00
‘England is a nation of shopkeepers’. Long before Napolean disdainfully paraphrased Adam Smith, British commerce had become a motor for economic growth and increased state power. This four-volume facsimile edition brings together a range of rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents about the mercantile system. Publications on the role of trade during this period often included practical advice. Their aim was to convince kings, courts, parliaments and politicians as well as the general public of the necessity to support trade and commerce by proper regulation. However, the literature also offers theoretical advice - elements of which have been picked up by later generations of economists.
Mercantilist Theory and Practice moves attention away from the most well-known of the mercantilist writers, such as Thomas Mun, Edward Misselden, Josiah Child and James Steuart. Instead, it offers a more nuanced picture by situating the mercantilist literature within the wider tradition of economic discourse of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Original source material is supported by extensive new editorial matter, including a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index.
The edition will be of interest to scholars and students of History of Economic Thought, Political and Economic History of the Early Modern Period and Eighteenth Century, and Empire Studies.
- Provides a comprehensive and definitive understanding of Mercantilism as a system of both economic thought and policy
- Most of the rare documents included have not been republished before
- New editorial material includes a general introduction, volume introductions, headnotes, endnotes and a consolidated index
- Each facsimile page is digitally cleaned and enhanced, significantly improving on the quality and legibility of the original
Sample pages
- Volume 2: Thomas Violet, The Advancement of Merchandize
- Volume 2: Thomas Violet, The Advancement of Merchandize: editorial notes
Contents
Volume 1: Trade, Growth and State Interest
Thomas Milles, The Customers Replie (1604); Thomas Milles, The Custumers Alphabet and Primer (1608); Henry Robinson, England’s Safety, in Trades Encrease (1641); Henry Robinson, Briefe Considerations, Concerning the Advancement of Trade and Navigation (1649); Decay of Trade. A Treatise against the Abating of Interest (1641); Thomas Violet, An Humble Declaration … Touching the Transportation of Gold and Silver (1643); [John Houghton], England’s Great Happiness (1677); William Carter, An Alarum to England to Prevent its Destruction by the Loss of Trade and Navigation (1700); Richard Welton, The Great Advantages of Navigation and Commerce to any Nation or People (1710); Erasmus Philips, An Appeal to Common Sense (1720); Erasmus Philips, The State of Nation, in Respect to her Commerce, Debts and Money (1725); Jacob Henriques, When Trade Increases, Riches will Improve (1755)
Volume 2: Foreign Trade: Regulation and Practice
Henry Parker, Of a Free Trade (1648); William Potter, The Trades-Man’s Jewel (1650); An Act for the Advancing and Regulating of the Trade of this Commonwealth (1650); A Declaration Set Forth by the Lord Lieutenant Generall (1651); Thomas Violet, The Advancement of Merchandize (1651); Henry Robinson, Certain Proposalls in Order to the Peoples Freedome and Accommodation in some Particulars (1652); The Reasons Humbly Offered to Consideration (c.1662); Reasons Humbly Offer’d to the Honourable House of Commons by the Tobacco and Wine Merchants (c.1700]); Charles Davenant, An Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making a People Gainers in the Ballance of Trade (1699); Truth is but Truth, as it is Timed! (1719); A Ballance for Merchants and Mariners (1719); [David Bindon], A Letter from a Merchant who has left off Trade to a Member of Parliament (1738)
Volume 3: The Colonial System
[Richard Eburne], A Plaine Path-Way to Plantations (1624); Balthasar Gerbier, A Sommary Description (1660); An Answer of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa (1667); News from New-England (1676); Arthur Dobbs, An Essay on the Trade and Improvement of Ireland (1729–31); Representation of the Board of Trade Relating to … his Majesty’s Plantations in America (1733–4); [Malachy Postlethwayt], The African Trade, the Great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America (1745); The Case of the Importation of Bar-Iron from our own Colonies of North America (1756); William Knox, The Interest of the Merchants and Manufacturers of Great-Britain, in the Present Contest with the Colonies (1775); Josiah Child, Charles Davenant and William Wood, Select Dissertations on Colonies and Plantations (1775)
Volume 4: The Industrial Interest and the Employment of the Poor
Peter Chamberlen, The Poor Man’s Advocate, or Englands Samaritan (1649); Henry Robinson, The Office of Addresses and Encounters (1650); Richard Haines, A Model of Government for the Good of the Poor and the Wealth of the Nation (1678); Richard Haines, England’s Weal and Prosperity Proposed (1681); A Discourse upon the Necessity of Encouraging Mechanic Industry (1690); [John Pollexfen], England and East-India Inconsistent in their Manufactures (1697); Charles Povey, The Unhappiness of England (1701); John Cary, An Essay Towards Regulating the Trade, and Employing the Poor of this Kingdom (1717); Thomas Troughear, The Best Way of Making our Charity Truly Beneficial to the Poor (1730); [William Hay], Remarks on the Laws Relating to the Poor ([1735]); Josiah Tucker, Reflections on the Expediency of a Law for the Naturalization of Foreign Protestants (1752); William Bailey, A Treatise on the Better Employment and more Comfortable Support of the Poor in Workhouses (1758)