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Human Sciences

Contact Jonathan Harrison, Alfred Pasternack or Barbara Scalvini

Human Sciences at Quaritch embraces a wide range of books and manuscripts documenting the history of ideas from the earliest times up to about 1960. Our strengths are in the history of economic thought and in philosophy, but we also deal in law; finance and banking (including speculation, actuarial science and insurance); politics and political theory; sociology; psychology; agriculture; education; logic; and the theory of language.

Some notable items which have recently passed through our hands include the only known copy of the Communist Manifesto inscribed by Karl Marx, Rudolf Carnap’s annotated copy of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus (Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung), Joseph Penso de la Vega’s Confusion de Confusiones (1688, the first book to describe the practice of a stock-exchange) and a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (4th edition, 1786), inscribed in Smith's own hand to Bonnie Prince Charlie's private secretary.

As well as dealing in individual books and manuscripts, we also offer collections. In recent years we have sold author collections of Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, Thorstein Veblen, Emile Durkheim and Jeremy Bentham. Among subject collections we have offered are the Herwood Library of accounting literature (including Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, 1494, the first printed exposition of double-entry book-keeping); the philosophy of language; texts pertaining to the theory and study of language in the West, and the history of probability - the calculus of probabilities, statistics and their applications.

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  1. SIMIAND, François (1873-1935), French sociologist and economist.

    A collection of six autograph letters signed (‘François Simiand’...

    Paris, Fontainebleau and unspecified, 1907, 1924, 1925 and undated.

    A collection of letters addressed by Simiand to his ‘cher ami’, identifiable from the contents as the bibliographer, historian, and expert on Saint-Simon, Alfred Pereire (1879-1957), giving an insight into their relationship.

    £100

  2. SINCLAIR, Sir John (1754-1835), agricultural improver and politician.

    Two letters, signed ‘John Sinclair’, to Sir William Hamilton...

    Whitehall, 10 February 1795; Hendersons Hotel, 14 September 1810.

    Two interesting letters written by Sinclair as president of the Board of Agriculture and during his campaign against the 1810 report of the bullion committee.

    £1100

  3. SISMONDI, J. C. L. Simonde de.

    Nouveaux principes d’économie politique, ou de la richesse dans ses rapports avec la population...

    Paris, Delaunay, Treuttel & Wurtz, 1819.

    First edition. ‘A number of concepts and theories that later became important in the history of economics first appeared in the writings of the Swiss economist J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi … Sismondi developed the first aggregate equilibrium income theory and the first algebraic growth model....

    £850

  4. [SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICAN COINAGE.]

    The King’s Assay Master’s Report, with Tables, shewing the Weights and Fineness of the...

    [London, 1834].

    Three tables of coinage weights and fineness for Mexico, Central America, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Rio Plata and Columbia, drawn up by Robert and Henry Bingley of the Assay Office ‘to enable Government to form a correct estimate of the value of South American Dollars, as a supply for the military chests...

    £250

  5. SPILBERGEN, Joris van, and Jacob LE MAIRE.

    Speculum orientalis occidentalisque Indiae navigationum; quarum una Georgii a...

    Leiden, Nicolaes van Geelkercken, 1619.

    First Latin edition of one of the classic Dutch illustrated voyages, identical in format and illustration to the same publisher’s Dutch-language edition of the same year.

    £20000

  6. STETSON, Charlotte Perkins [later GILMAN].

    Women and Economics: A Study of the economic Relation between Men and Women as...

    London and Boston, G. P. Putnam’s Sons and Small, Maynard & Company, 1900.

    Third edition, first published in 1898, of the best-known and most influential work of the prominent American feminist, sociologist, and novelist Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

    £95

  7. STEUART, Sir James Denham.

    The works, political, metaphisical, and chronological... now first collected by General Sir James Steuart,...

    London, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1805.

    First and only edition of Steuart’s collected works, volumes I to IV containing the Inquiry into the principles of political Oeconomy, volume V containing Steuart’s various writings on money and coinage, volume VI his philosophical writings, together with anecdotes of his life.

    £4750

  8. STOURM, Auguste-African, dit Eugène.

    Opinion sur la question des sucres.

    [Paris, Bourgogne & Martinet, n. d., but 1840.]

    First and only edition of this work on the sugar beet trade; the French had begun cultivating sugar beet during the Napoleonic wars, when the British blocked shipments of cane sugar from colonies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe.

    £100

  9. [SUEZ CANAL.]

    Vade-mecum des porteurs de Suez. Extrait du numéro du 4 mars 1882 du Courrier des Tirages financiers. Propriété...

    . Paris, [1882].

    Scarce pamphlet, signed ‘J. R.’, advising investors in the Suez Canal – referred to as ‘capitalistes intelligents’ – on the likely return on their investments over the coming 10 years.

    £50

  10. [SWEDIAUER, Franz Xavier].

    The Philosophical dictionary: or the opinions of modern philosophers on metaphysical, moral and political...

    London, for G.G.J. and J Robinson, 1786.

    First edition of this philosophical dictionary, featuring extracts from ‘the writings of the most eminent philosophers in Europe’ (preface) chosen by Swediaur, who originally compiled the collection as a sort of commonplace book for his private use. The broad-reaching content includes contributions...

    £200

  11. SWEEZY, Paul Malor.

    The theory of capitalist development. Principles of Marxian political economy.

    London, Dennis Dobson, 1946

    First British edition (first issued in 1942), of Sweezy’s ‘seminal work’ (The New Palgrave). Based on lectures which he gave at Harvard on the economics of socialism, this work is a ‘comprehensive review of Marxian economics up until the time of World War II’ and ‘did much to determine the...

    £40

  12. [SWIFT, Jonathan.]

    Some Observations upon a Paper, call’d, the Report of the Committee of the most honourable Privy-Council in...

    Dublin, Printed by John Harding … [1724].

    First edition of the third of Swift’s Drapier’s letters, bound with other works including two further pamphlets on Wood’s coinage (Remarks upon Mr. Wood’s Coyn and Proceedings by Sir Michael Creagh, and A Word or two to the People of Ireland, concerning the Brass Money),...

    £12500

  13. TATE, William.

    The modern cambist; forming a manual of foreign exchanges, in the direct, indirect, and cross operations of bills...

    London, Effingham Wilson, 1836.

    Third edition, corrected and expanded to reflect changes in the monetary systems of Portugal and Geneva, a new coinage introduced by the East India Company and the opening of trade with China. There is also a new appendix which discusses the mintage regulations for the coins of the United States, reflecting...

    £125

  14. TAYLOR, G. Oswald (photographer).

    Promotional photographic brochure celebrating the coronation of Elizabeth II.

    Nottingham, Fine Stocking Manufacturers Ltd., June 1953.

    An unusual coronation souvenir. The details on the lower wrapper indicate that Oswald Taylor produced the booklet, as well as photographed the series.

    £300

  15. TOOKE, Thomas.

    Thoughts and Details on the high and low Prices of the last thirty Years.

    London, John Murray, 1823.

    First edition of Tooke's first work, discussing the influence of climatic conditions and changing demand on agricultural prices. ‘During the three years which followed the Resumption Act of 1819 prices of nearly all commodities decreased, and the opinion that the fall in prices was the result of the...

    £750

  16. [TOYNBEE, Arnold.]

    “Progress and poverty,” a criticism of Mr. Henry George. Being two lectures delivered in St. Andrew’s...

    London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1883.

    First edition of the transcript of two lectures delivered in 1883 by the social reformer and political economist Arnold Toynbee (1852–1883) criticising Henry George’s Progress and Poverty (1879).

    £50

  17. [TRADE AND EXCISE].

    An Additional Act for the better improvement and advancing the receipts of the Excise and New-Impost. At the...

    London, Henry Hills and Iohn Field, Printers to His Highness, 1657.

    First edition. The most substantial part of the Act, entitled ‘A Book of Values of Merchandize imported, according to which, excize is to be paid by the first buyer’, includes a forty-page alphabetical list of imported commodities, each recorded with the respective payable duty.

    £250

  18. TUCKER, Josiah.

    Betydande frågor om handelen, wid tilfålle af de motsäjelser, som skedde emot den sista billen, om utlänningars...

    [v. Oelreich], 1763.

    First Swedish edition, scarce, of this history on the treatment of foreign residents in Britain, Reflections on the Expediency of a Law for the Naturalization of Foreign Protestants (1751–1752). This book comprises only the main body of Part II (1752), ‘Important Queries occasioned by The Rejection...

    £200

  19. TUGAN-BARANOSKIĬ, M. I.

    Sovremennyĭ sotsializm v svoem istoricheskom razvitii.

    St. Petersburg, Buduschnost’, 1906.

    First edition of Tugan-Baranoskiĭ’s work on socialism; it was translated into English as Modern Socialism in its Historical Development by M. I. Redmount and published in 1910. After dismissal from his position at the University of St. Petersburg in 1899 for ‘political unreliability’, Tugan-Baranoskiĭ...

    £350

  20. TUGAN-BARANOVSKII, Mikhail Ivanovich.

    Teoreticheskiia osnovyi Marksizma.

    St Petersburg, I. N. Skorokhodov, 1905.

    First Russian edition of Theoretical Foundations of Marxism; a German edition, Theoretische Grundlagen der Marxismus, was published in the same year.

    £750