Books

. 2 volumes. LXVII,325; [IV],424p., complete with both half titles. From the library of William Fortescue (?), with his bookplate on paste-downs (rudely removed in the second volume) and his name on the title of the first volume. Contemp. calf, backs with red and black labels, sides a bit scratched. A very nice set. First Irish edition. James Anderson was a Scottish gentleman farmer and author of several works on rural economy, the corn trade and similar subjects, but he is particularly credited for his (in the present work) anticipating the Ricardian theory of rent, the first clear formulation of the law of diminishing returns. These volumes 'show clearly that Anderson had a more correct view of the theory of rent than his greater contemporary and compatriot Adam Smith. Rent, he says, is a premium for the cultivation of the richer soils, reducing the profits of the cultivators to an equality with those of the cultivators of the poorer' (James Bonar in Palgrave'). 'The association of rent with decreasing returns which was to be one of the most characteristic features of the Ricardian system, was established by Anderson' (Schumpeter). These volumes also contain one of the earliest criticisms of Adam Smith's Wealth of nations'. In a Postscript to letter thirteenth' (volume II, p.109-224) Anderson writes: 'I have seen the very ingenious treatise of Dr. Adam Smith on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations; and am sorry to find, that I have the misfortune to differ in opinion from an author of such extensive knowledge, and liberal sentiments, on a subject of so much real importance as that which is here treated of'. Schumpeter considered Anderson 'one of the most interesting English economists of the late eighteenth century . he had to an unusual degree what so many economists lack, Vision'. The first edition was published in Edinburgh in 1777. *Kress B.170. Goldsmiths' 11772. Einaudi 117 (the first edition). Schumpeter p.263ff. Palgrave I,p.39-40 & III,p.287.