[ENGLAND, PARLIAMENT.]

An ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament. For the speedy raising and levying of moneyes,...

London, for John Wright, 27 July 1643.

The ordinance which introduced Excise into England. ‘Excise’ is defined in the OED as follows: ‘A duty charged on home goods, either in the process of their manufacture or before their sale to the home consumers … In England this kind of taxation was first adopted in 1643, in acknowledged imitation...

£275

[BANK OF SCOTLAND.]

Act of Parliament for erecting a bank in Scotland. Edinburgh, July 17 1695.

Edinburgh, printed by the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, 1695.

Very rare edition of the Act of Parliament establishing Scotland’s first and oldest bank, founded just one year after the Bank of England.

£650

[LAW, John.]

Abbildung des auf der Strasse Quincampoix in Paris entstandenen so berühmten Actien-Handel. Excudit C. Weigel nach...

[1720.]

This engraving is a German version of ‘Rue Quinquempoix en l'Année 1720’(BM Catalogue 1655). It gives a view, in angular perspective, of the Rue Quinquempoix, Paris, with crowds of persons assembled there during the share mania of the Mississippi, South Sea, and other schemes which bubbled in the...

£1250

[LONDON ASSURANCE CORPORATION.]

By-laws, orders, and rules, for the good government of the corporation of the London assurance....

London, [n.p.], 1722.

First edition of the by-laws of the London Assurance Corporation, which, along with The Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, was constituted and granted sole rights, excepting private individuals, to the granting of assurance and bottomry by ‘The Bubble Act’ of 1720. The right to self-govern, reflected...

£550

[VALLI, Francesco di Andrea.] 

Manuscript receipt book. 

Villa di Vaglie, Cortona, 1735-1767. 

An interesting manuscript receipt book recording the affairs and transactions of Francesco di Andrea Valli (or Vagli) and his sons Pietro and Egidio, landowners and farmers from Villa di Vaglie near Cortona, over the course of four decades. 

£375

[MABBUT, George].

Sir Isaac Newton’s tables for renewing and purchasing the leases of cathedral-churches and colleges, according...

London, printed for Thomas Astley, 1742

Sixth edition, first published in 1686, this issue was sometimes also published with a separate title page and imprint reading, ‘The money’d man’s pocket-book’, London, 1742’ immediately preceding the title-page of the second part. A series of tables calculating the amounts owed on leases based...

£125

BELLONI, Girolami, Marchese.

Del Commercio dissertazione.

Rome, Niccolo and Marco Pagliarini, 1757.

Second edition to be authorized by Belloni, (first, 1750) – the first edition to include the author’s considerations on ‘imaginary money’ (pp. 135-154) – of a work notable for its argument in favour of restrictions on the export of money by the Vatican banker Girolamo Belloni (1688–1760)....

£300

GARRIDO, Joam Antonio.

Taboada curiosa, novamente reformada, e augmentada, em que se trata de todas as regras geraes, e especies...

Lisbon, Ignacio Nogueira Xisto, 1759.

Sixth edition of a rare Portuguese merchant’s guide. ‘This all-purpose handbook includes rates of exchange for European currencies, rules for basic math, instructions on bookkeeping for companies, rules of spelling and pronunciation, and a number of odd lists: e.g. notable items for the numbers 1-12,...

£250

[NECKER, Jacques.]

Eloge de Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Discours qui a remporté le prix de l’Académie Françoise, en 1773.

Paris, J.B. Brunet, 1773. [bound with:]

First edition of Necker’s first work. Necker (1732–1804) was the opponent of Turgot (whose position he was to take over in 1777) in action as well as in theory, agreeing with Forbonnais on the side of State-regulation. The encomiastic function of this work, his first book, is in fact a thin cover...

£750

[SERRÉ, Jean-Baptiste-Adrien-Joseph.]

Livre utile aux négocians de l’Europe, contenant les réductions des argents dont ils...

Paris, chez Valade; Brussels, chez Emmanuel Flon, 1774.

£100

VINCENS, Jean Alexandre.

Account book.

Nimes, France, 1783-1800.

A unique record of the financial transactions and business dealings of a leading Protestant family of bankers and merchants in Nîmes, in the south of France, prior to and during the French Revolution, covering the period between May 1783 and Fructidor year VIII i.e. 1800.

£4250

HURRY, Thomas.

Tables of interest, from one pound to five hundred millions, for one day; by which the interest for any sum of money...

[Yarmouth], Printed for the author, and sold by Messrs. Robinson, London; and Downes and March, Yarmouth, 1786.

One of two editions published in 1786, the other one undated, ESTC does not give any precedence. Tables for calculating interest at a quarter, half, three-quarters, three, four, and five percent; intended as a quick reference for bankers and merchants. Hurry precedes his tables with four pages of example...

£150

[GREAT BRITAIN: PARLIAMENT].

[Drop-head title:] ‘An act for repealing the several duties of customs and excise, and granting...

London, Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1787.

Rare first edition of the consolidation act that revolutionised British handling of customs and excise and the problem of smuggling, in line with Adam Smith’s 1776 recommendations.

£2750

FORTUNE, Thomas.

A concise and authentic history of the Bank of England. With dissertations on medals & coin, bank notes and bills...

London, Boosey, 1802.

Third edition, ‘with considerable additions’. The first two editions of 1797, says Fortune in his ‘advertisement’, were written to defend the bank against the calumny it received from the public after the financial scares in that year, when the bank was forced to suspend specie payments. This...

£275

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

HUSKISSON, William (1770-1830), politician.

Autograph letter signed (‘W Huskisson’) to an unnamed ‘Dear Sir’.

18 Hertford Street [London], 21 December, 1810.

Huskisson was a leading exponent of strict adherence to the Gold standard and an opponent of the perceived over-issue of bank notes in the early nineteenth century. This letter was written only a few months after Huskisson had published his important pamphlet, The question concerning the depreciation...

£150

ROSE, George.

Observations respecting the public expenditure, and the influence of the Crown … Third edition.

London, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1810.

The third of four editions published in 1810. ‘A rabid Anti-Bullionist’ (Stephens, p. 42), Rose (1744–1818), here, ‘for Pitt’s greater glory … illustrate[s] the decline of the influence of the crown since 1782 by reference to the elimination of places and sinecures. His conclusions were...

£30

KING, John, barrister at law.

A Report of the Cases of the King v. Wright, and the King v. De Yonge, who were severally tried for...

Butterworth, and J. Cooke (Dublin), 1811.

?First edition. The question of forgeries, which were punishable by death, was an important one during the debates; it gave an argument to the bullionists.

£100

[RICARDO, David.]

Report from the select committee on the usury laws.

London, Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 1818.

First edition of the report from the select committee ‘appointed to consider the effects of the laws which regulate or restrain the interest of money, and to report their opinion thereupon to the House…’ (p. 3). The question of the Usury Laws had first been raised in the house of commons by Brougham...

£350

[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