A very attractive copy of this Neapolitan edition of Pietro Verri’s ‘most important economic publication’ (New Palgrave), originally published in Livorno earlier in the same year, one of six editions published in Italy within two years of its first appearance.
‘Verri’s Reflections is a complete treatise on political economy, reminiscent of Turgot’s Reflections on the Production and Distribution of Wealth (1766) with its tight, logical framework and division into fairly short sections. Although these cover a wide range of subjects, they are interconnected by the basic theme of the work, the increase in annual reproduction of the nation through trade of surplus product which Verri related to the balance of production and consumption. This ratio or balance is the key concept in Verri’s economic analysis, since it not only influences economic growth but also value (it approximates the ratio of sellers to buyers at home and abroad), the rate of interest (it represents thriftiness conditions) and, via its influence on the balance of trade, it also determines national money supply’ (New Palgrave).
Provenance: from the library of Rt. Hon. Henry Hobhouse (1776-1854), English archivist and civil servant, succeeded John Bruce as Keeper of the State Papers in 1826 following retirement from his role as Permanent Under Secretary of State for the Home Department (1817-1827), with his engraved armorial bookplate to front pastedown and ownership inscription to title page.
Carpenter, The Economic Bestsellers Before 1850, XXV (2).