Books

First edition of Schmid's magnum opus. 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 criticising luxury. These physiocratic ideas are evident in this, his key publication, 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, octavo. 20th-century sheep, spines lettered in gilt, brown marbled sides. Half-titles present. Binding a little rubbed, some browning and crayon annotations to text (including on half-title of vol. I), some faint staining at foot in vol. II. A good copy. Einaudi A.867; INED 4116; Mattioli 3269; not in Goldsmiths or Kress.