A Sketch of the Life and Projects of John Law of Lauriston,comptroller General of the finances in France
by Wood,John
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom
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About This Item
[WOOD,John Philip].
A Sketch of the Life and Projects of John Law of Lauriston,comptroller General of the finances in France. Edinburgh, Peter Hill and George Kearsley 1791
Quarto, 29.0 x 23.0 cm, t, pp.(4) + ii + 48, paper wrappers with short tear, original blue paper wrappers, uncut, an excellent copy, preserved in a marbled portfolio with ties.
ESTC T8458. Kress B2240. Goldsmith 14941.
RARE FIRST EDITION of the earliest published biography in English of the Scottish economist John Law. The dedication is to William Davidson of Muirhead.
The son of a prosperous banker John Law [1671-1729] devoted his entire life to making proposals for the establishment of banks, both in Scotland and on the Continent, convinced as he was that the key to economic prosperity lay in augmenting the base of metallic currencies with paper money, particularly paper money backed by land holdings. He was appointed Controller General of Finances in France by the regent Philippe dOrleans in 1716 and the became the architect of the Mississippi Bubble. Law was dismissed from his post in 1720.
His principal theories on money and banking, giving a detailed account of his plan to replace specie with paper currency based on land and of his proposals for a state bank were published in his Money and trade considered, published anonymously in Edinburgh in 1705. Law is described by Schumpeter as "in the front rank of monetary theorists of all times".
Antoin Murphy writes "Money and trade in particular is a seminal work….In it Law discussed not only the money/inflation issue, but, more significantly, the money/output issue. He was contending that money was linked, not just to the price level, but also to output – or trade, as it was then called. Law wanted to show that an expansion of money supply could increase output and employment in an economy characterised by unemployment and under-utilisation of resources. At the same time, he produced a highly innovative approach to macroeconomic theorizing…"
The author of this biography John Wood was to publish in 1794 an account of John Law's ancestral village entitled The Ancient and Modern State of the Parish of Cramond.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- B201
- Title
- A Sketch of the Life and Projects of John Law of Lauriston,comptroller General of the finances in France
- Author
- Wood,John
- Format/Binding
- Original blue paper wrappers uncut
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- first
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Peter Hill and George Kearsley
- Place of Publication
- Edinburgh
- Date Published
- 1791
- Keywords
- economics, John Law
Terms of Sale
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
About the Seller
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
About Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books
Rare book specialist Hamish Riley-Smith, who died on August 10, did not originally intend to become a dealer.
He went to Trinity College Dublin, where he read economics and met our mother Brigitta (Gita) von Wagner. He planned to work in the family brewing business, John Smith's, and spent seven years learning the craft at Whitbread's. But after all the family interest in John Smith's was sold in 1972, he looked for a new career.
In 1974 he started Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books. He had no formal training in the book business, other than an acute awareness of business and a degree in economics. He started, in his own words, as a runner, taking one book to another dealer and making a small margin.
Hamish quickly realised this was not for him and started to focus on Arabic and economic books and the social sciences. Through knowledge and research he built up a strong and friendly working relationship with the Japanese, travelling to Japan often. He also traded in Arabia, the US and Europe.
Sacks of catalogues
We can remember how sacks of catalogues would leave the house and go off to museums and institutions across the world, and answers would come back via telex. This was a world before the internet, mobile phones and faxes and computers were only just coming in.
Among his proudest sales were the 14th century Qur'an manuscript of Mameluk Sultan Al Malik Al Nasir Muhammad (pictured here); The Papers of Sir Roy Harrod; The library of Sir John Hicks; The Betjeman Library; typescript/manuscript of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractus Logico Philosophicus; The Felibriges Library of Musée Theodore Aubanel, Avignon; as well as collections of Isaac Newton; John Locke; Thomas Hobbes; Shakespeare; William Petty; Robert Owen and Adam Smith.
He was resolute in his independence and had many friends and colleagues in the book business, but he never did a book fair ("I am not a book fairy") and refused to join any trade associations.
He will be remembered by the family as a loving husband, father and grandfather, and a great source of fun and interest; for Hamish, above all, family came first. His business will continue to be run by his wife Gita and two sons, Damian, director of Paragraph Publishing, and Crispian, director of Crispian Riley-Smith Fine Arts Ltd.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Wrappers
- The paper covering on the outside of a paperback. Also see the entry for pictorial wraps, color illustrated coverings for...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...