"UNSURPASSED, BEFORE OR AFTER"
VAUBAN, SEBASTIEN LE PRESTRE.
Projet d'une dixme royale. Qui supprimant la taille, Les Aydes, les Doüanes d'une Province à l'autre (...).
(No place, nor printer), 1707.
8vo. In contemporary full calf with five raised bands and richly gilt spine. Edges of boards gilt. Title-label is either missing or have never been added. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Stains and scratches to boards. Corners bumped. Internally nice and clean. VIII, 268 pp. + 3 folded tables.
One of the at least seven different issues of the 12mo edition, published same year as the first edition (in 4to), in which Vauban proposed a comprehensive tax reform plan for France. The central idea was to replace the existing tax system, which heavily burdened the lower classes while exempting the nobility and clergy, with a single tax on income and property that would be fairly distributed among all citizens, regardless of social status. Schumpeter called the work 'unsurpassed, before or after, in the neatness and cogency of the argument. Purposeful marshalling of all the available data was the essence of his analysis. Nobody ever understood better the true relation between facts and argument. It is this that makes him an economic classic in the eulogistic sense of the work, and a forerunner of modern tendencies' (Schumpeter, History of Economic analysis, p. 204). 'an erudite economic work much in advance of its time, and distinguished both by accuracy of method and breadth of view' (Palgrave), 'creditable alike to the heart and the head of its illustrious author' (McCulloch). 'Though the book was published anonymously, and only a few copies issued (for circulation among friends), Vauban had to submit to the mortification of seeing it 'pilloried' by the parliament, while he himself incurred the displeasure of the king (Louis XIV).' (Palgrave).
Order-nr.: 60967
DKK 4.500,00