De l'exportation et de l'inportation des grains. Mémoire lû à la Société Royale d'Agriculture de Soissons. DUPONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre Samuel.

First edition of this strong argument for the physiocratic policy of free trade in grain by one of the school's most influential practitioners. Quesnay was pleased with Dupont's tract and encouraged him to dedicate it to his patron Madame de Pompadour, which Dupont did, although she died before its publication. The work caught the attention of Jacques Turgot, then Intendant of Limousin, who was drafting an edict to free the grain trade and enlisted Dupont's assistance. The success of the treatise "was due at least in part to the climate of opinion favorable to arguments for removing restrictions on the commerce of grain" (Saricks, p. 37), an opinion that formed the basis of Turgot's free trade reforms. This copy is from the standard issue, with pp. 15-20 and 47-52 cancels; a very few copies are known with the text in manuscript. Goldsmiths' 9977; Higgs 3158; INED 1605; Kress S.4336; Schelle 3; not in Einaudi. Ambrose Saricks, Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 1965. Octavo (199 x 124 mm), pp. vi, [2] (advertisement leaf), vii-viii, 174, [2] (approbation). Large folding table following p. 46. Contemporary mottled calf, brown morocco label to spine, smooth spine gilt in compartments, triple gilt rules to covers with floral cornerpieces, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Joints and extremities restored, light stain at head. A very good copy.