science. This the only surviving fragment of his work greatly influenced the early French economists, — Gournay, Quesnay, Mirabeau, Turgot, Condillac, Mably, Graslin. It is one of the few works referred to by Adam Smith, and Jevons called it the first treatise on economics. Three editions of it are known, — the 1755 edition of 436 pages, 12mo, now reprinted; an edition in smaller form (probably from another press) in 1756, 432 pages, 12mo; and the reprint appended to Mauvillon’s translation of the Discours Politiques of Hume (in vol. iii.), Amsterdam, 1755.
See the articles by F. von Sivers, Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie, 1874, p. 145; S. Bauer, ibid., 1890, p. 145; W. S. Jevons, Contemporary Review, 1881, p. 61 ; Henry Higgs, The Economic Journal, 1891, p. 262. Also A. Espinas, Histoire des Doctrines Économiques, Paris, 1891.
This edition attempts to reproduce that of 1755 so far as is possible with type not manufactured for the purpose. The old pagination is preserved, and even typographical errors and irregularities are left unchanged.
