Books

First edition, presented by Ramsay to John R. McCulloch (1789-1864), a leading member of the Ricardian school of economics, who was then a professor of political economy at University College, London. Ramsay's Essay attracted the attention of Marx, who made a serious study of it in Das Kapital. The Essay on the Distribution of Wealth stands as Ramsay's "best work" (Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, p. 936). In it, Ramsay (1800-1871) was the first writer in English to distinguish between form value, place value, and time value. Marx's study, by contrast, focussed on Ramsay's analysis of fixed and circulating capital, concluding that he had conflated this distinction with that of constant and variable capital. The front free endpaper is inscribed, in Ramsay's hand, "For Professor McCulloch with the Author's Compliments". McCulloch was also a keen bibliophile, compiling the pioneering Literature of Political Economy in 1845. Octavo, pp. xiii, [1], [9]-506. Original brown quarter cloth, rebacked with spine laid down, spine with printed paper label, grey boards, edges uncut. Nineteenth-century bookplate of Class Library for Commercial and Political Economy and Mercantile Law, with Edinburgh University Library cancellation stamp, to front pastedown. Recent pencil annotations to p. 266. Light bumping and wear, minor scuffing to label, touching text, slight separations between various gatherings, generally holding firm, faint foxing to edges and outer leaves: a very good copy. Goldsmiths' 29350; Kress C. 4226; Mattioli 2955; Sraffa 4845.