"THE BEST OF THE MANY TREATISES PUBLISHED IN ITALY ON MONEY"

GALIANI, FERDINANDO.

Della moneta libri cinque. Edizione seconda.

Napoli, Stamperia Simoniana, 1780.

4to. In contemporary full vellum with leather title label with gilt lettering to spine. Occassionally brownspotted throughout, otherwise a good copy. (28), 416 pp.

Second edition, supplemented with a preface, notes and an epilogue, remarking on the change in the current situation since the first edition, of this groundbreaking work in monetary economics, considered one of the first specific treatises on economics. Galiani's treatise, first printed anonymously in 1751, was not just a work of economics; it was based on the principal that freedom was important for society to work properly and it became very influential in subsequent monetary theory - "This is the best of the many treatises published in Italy on money" (McCulloch).

Most of Galiani’s theoretical work can be found in his ‘Della moneta’. Despite the variety of topics addressed in the book, the basic contributions concern value and monetary theory and the so called paradox of value which according to Schumpeter  he ‘carried this analysis to its 18th-century peak’ (History of Economic Analysis, p.300).

“Besides being a policy paper – stressing, in Vico’s tradition, the importance of happiness and utility and arguing that policy does not have principles, hence different economic policies are needed in different times – Della moneta is also a sophisticated theoretical treatise. The latter is probably the highest analysis on the nature of money, its value and the implications of different policies on prices, supply and demand of goods and equilibrium. In the tradition of Montanari and Davanzati, Galiani develops a subjective value theory on philosophical and psychological grounds. The value of anything is something that human human beingsdetermine for themselves naturally, through their own mutual agreement. Utility equals happiness and is inversely proportional to rarity; value is a function of marginal utility; no lawm nor governments, should therefore try to impose estimates of value (‘alzamento’) on others, because  this coercion would eventually ruin and corrupt the natural order of things. In the treatise he challenged both Broggio, Locke and above all Jean-Francois Melon, whose work he knew through his uncle Celestino. He proclaims his debt to a long tradition of studies on money and on monetary theory: from Aristotle, to the Spanish theologians of the School of Salamanca, Bernardo Davanzati and William Petty, showing the breadth of his reading and the quality of sources.” (Books that Made Europe).

Order-nr.: 60056