[DUPONT DE NEMOURS] QUESNAY, François. Physiocracy, or the N - Lot 138

[DUPONT DE NEMOURS] QUESNAY, François. Physiocracy, or the Natural Constitution of the Government Most Advantageous to Mankind. Rare first edition of this version edited by Dupont de Nemours. Leiden, published in Paris by Merlin, 1768. In-8, full brown grained calfskin, smooth spine decorated with small metal stamps and a brown leather title label, red edges. 2 ff.n.h. (half-title, title page), CXX (publisher’s preface and table of contents), and 172 pp. Caps worn away, corners rounded, small loss of leather at the top of the spine with traces of restoration, hinges worn (one section has been removed at the end of the volume), on the front endpaper a rectangular cutout where an ex-libris once was. Page 104 is gummed (browned paper). The frontispiece is missing. First edition of the economic works of François Quesnay (1694–1774), which had previously been published in journals with limited print runs. It contains a lengthy preliminary discourse and commentary by Dupont de Nemours (1739–1817), one of Quesnay’s earliest disciples. This doctrine is based on two essential concepts: one of a philosophical nature—the “natural order”—and the other of an economic nature—the “net product”—which Quesnay sets forth in his famous “Economic Table.” A second, complementary volume, with continuous pagination, *Discussions and Elaborations on Some Concepts of Political Economy*, curiously appeared the previous year, as the publication of *Physiocracy* had been delayed due to a reference to the king’s presence during the first printing of Quesnay’s *Tableau économique* in 1758. Louis XV had the reference removed, which delayed publication. Copy in period binding, interior in fresh condition.