Books

First edition of Schmid's magnum opus, an especially handsome copy. Schmid (1720-1805) was a councillor of the Saxe-Weimar ducal court and in contact with many of the leading philosophes, including Voltaire, Diderot, and d'Alembert. His economic writings were heavily influenced by physiocratic ideas, promoting agriculture as the basis of the nation's wealth and criticizing luxury. These physiocratic ideas are evident in this, his key publication and an interesting and wide-ranging work. There are sections discussing population (Schmid advocates a continuous increase, denying that it would outrun the means of subsistence); domestic society (he maintains that divorce is sanctioned by natural law and that polygamy favours a healthy multiplication of the species); property (he defends private ownership of land, rejecting communism as a monastic idea contrary to the order of nature); luxury (inequality of wealth is just and necessary to national prosperity, but luxury of consumption should be eradicated - though by the influence of public opinion and not by sumptuary laws); taxation (Schmid favours direct over indirect taxation); commerce (external trade is not a source of real wealth, and, to the extent that it is necessary, the balance of trade should be kept in exact equilibrium); and war (he proposes a European confederation to guarantee peace). Schmid's conclusion is that the sources of public welfare are property, liberty, and security. Two vols bound in one, octavo (204 x 124 mm). Contemporary red morocco, green morocco label to spine, smooth spine gilt to compartments with foliate motifs, gilt-ruled border to covers, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, green silk bookmarker. Bound with half-titles. Contemporary ownership jottings to endpapers. Light wear to bottom tips, a few instances of very faint foxing. An excellent copy. Einaudi A.867; INED 4116; Mattioli 3269; not in Goldsmiths or Kress.