“IN THE PRIMITIVE AGES OF THE WORLD… THERE WAS NOT EVEN SO MUCH AS BARTER”
(ANDERSON, Adam). Anderson's Historical and Chronological Deduction of the Origin of Commerce, From the Earliest Accounts. Containing An History of the Great Commercial Interests of the British Empire…Carefully Revised, Corrected, and continued to the Year 1789, By Mr. Coombe. Dublin: Printed for P. Byrne, 1790. Six volumes. Octavo, contemporary full brown mottled calf sympathetically rebacked, period-style burgundy and black morocco spine labels. $1750.
Third edition of this important authoritative history of commerce, with a global authority that includes a focus on Britain’s acquisition of “new American markets,” as well as the greater consequences of “the very extraordinary actions of the year 1720” when the South Sea Bubble burst (Sabin), with two large folding maps.
"The most comprehensive history of the earlier centuries of British overseas trade, Adam Anderson's Origin of Commerce" appeared when "the mercantile age was at its height. It was 'to the instrumentality of Commerce alone,' Anderson suggested, that 'the Britannic Empire is most peculiarly indebted for its Opulence and Grandeur" (Ormrod, Rise of Commercial Empires, 1). Reflecting on Britain's economic ties to North America, Anderson shared a general feeling in the pre-revolutionary years "that the colonies were to perform a dual role as producers of raw materials to be used by English manufacturers and as consumers of finished English products. This arrangement was seen… as reciprocally advantageous to both England and America" (Peskin, Manufacturing Revolution, 22).
Praised by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations (1776) as "sober and judicious" in his research, Anderson welcomed trade with the colonies and "was delighted that Britain had acquired new American markets… He also congratulated the Americans on increasing their trade, 'perpetually increasing their useful productions, cultivating new plantations, and successfully attempting new materials for commerce.' He referred mainly to the raw materials produced by the southern colonies…. [as well as] New England lumber and food products of the mid-Atlantic colonies…. giving particular stress to those colonial products that might be useful to British manufacturing" (Peskin, 22). In this "monument of stupendous industry" (DNB), Anderson's scope is global and yet specific, devoting a considerable portion to British colonial interests and offering a "most accurate account of the South Sea Company and the very extraordinary actions of the year 1720" when the Bubble burst (Sabin 1382). Within this impressive six-volume edition are extensive references to treaties, parliamentary acts, the substantive contributions of economic texts, and thorough statistical accounts of currency, population and wealth. With engraved frontispiece, large folding hemispheric map of the world, a second folding map, and two sets of folding tables. Updated with revisions and corrections by Coombe. First published in London, 1764. Palgrave I:39. See Goldsmith 14077; Kress B1781; Rare English Books on Banking 13.
Text generally clean; contemporary calf quite handsome.