The Works, Political, Metaphysical, and Chronological. STEUART, Sir James Denham.

First collected edition of the works of one of the leading political economists of the 18th century, a principal advocate of mercantilism and a major intellectual opponent of Adam Smith, whose Wealth of Nations was written in part to refute his theories. Steuart's Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy (1767) was perhaps the first systematic treatise on economics in English. Only the publication of the Wealth of Nations in 1776 prevented it becoming "the standard English economic text" (Carpenter, p. 20). Throughout the 1770s and 1780s, it was more widely cited than Smith's work, and the Inquiry was studied closely by Marx, Hegel, and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton shaped his protectionist policies in line with Steuart's analysis. This edition was prepared by the prominent antiquarian George Chalmers (1742-1825). Vols I-IV contain the Inquiry, while the remaining two volumes collect Steuart's writings on money, coinage, and philosophy, together with shorter autobiographical notes. Einaudi 1526; Goldsmiths' 19010; Kress B.4987. Kenneth Carpenter, The Economic Bestsellers Before 1850, 1975. 6 volumes, octavo (221 x 134 mm); index leaves of vol. IV bound at the end of vol. VI. Near-contemporary quarter cloth, spines numbered in black, grey boards. Early bookseller's stamp of Cooke & Sons, Warwick, to front free endpapers. Worn, slight toning, browning, and spotting to contents: a good set, largely unopened.