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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. 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

  2. LAEMMEL, Rudolf.

    Untersuchungen über die Ermittlung von Wahrscheinlichkeiten.

    Zurich, Jean Frey, 1904.

    The doctoral dissertation of Rudolf Laemmel, produced under the auspices of Burkhardt of Zurich, and the first attempt at founding probability theory on set theory and measure theory (the axiomatization of probability). The work discusses the rules
    of total and compound probability as axioms. The...

    £250

  3. [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

  4. [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...

    £975

  5. LOWER RATES.

    No. 7. Bankers cause War.

    London, United ratepayers’ advisory association [1930s].

    First and only edition. An authentic copy of the Fascist-sponsored newspaper ‘Lower Rates’, a rare survival from the heyday of Oswald Mosley. Under the headline ‘Bankers cause War’ we see bankers accused of creating all the problems of society, including war-mongering and creating artificial credit.

    £130

  6. [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

  7. [MILL, John Stuart, witness].

    Report from the Select Committee on the Income and Property Tax; together with the Proceedings of...

    [London], Ordered by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 1 August 1861.

    First edition. This is the concluding report of the Commons Select Committee that had been responsible for investigating possible modifications to income tax policy. John Stuart Mill appeared before the Committee on the 18 June 1861, where he reiterated his central belief that the current system of income...

    £700

  8. [NAPLES.]

    Manuale della contribuzione fondiaria compilato per disposizione di S. E. il ministro segretario di stato delle finanze....

    Naples, Tipografia Flautina, 1835.

    First edition. In two parts, the first of which sets out the basis of property taxation, while the second treats the collection and transmission of sums owing, this manual prints the legislation in force in the nearer Neapolitan part (always described as ‘This side of the Lighthouse’, whereas Sicily...

    £200

  9. [NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH.]

    Regularization of Business Investment. A conference of the Universities-National Bureau...

    Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1954.

    First edition. ‘The question this book raises and helps to answer is whether the entire responsibility for preventing the next depression is to be left to government, or whether a leading role can be assumed by private enterprise, through regularization of investment expenditures. Twenty-six leading...

    £120

  10. [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

  11. PELLISSERY, Roch-Antoine de.

    Eloge politique de Colbert: qui n’a point été présenté à l’Academie Française pour le prix...

    Lausanne, n.p., 1775.

    First edition. This work provides a detailed examination of Colbert’s financial and economic work, with detailed information about the situation in France since his ministry. Colbert was the contrôleur général under Louis XIV and a firm believer in the mercantilist doctrine that the expansion of...

    £250

  12. [PINTO, Isaac de].

    Traité de la Circulation et du Crédit. Contenant une Analyse raisonnée des Fonds d’Angleterre, & de ce...

    Amsterdam, Marc Michel Rey, 1771.

    First edition, first issue, of this ‘sound and ingenious’ (McCulloch) work on revenue and stock exchange transactions. The main thrust of Pinto’s argument is that the national debt, instead of being a burden, has been the principal source of the wealth and power of England.

    £3500

  13. [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...

    £950

  14. RICARDO, David.

    The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, edited by Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb.

    Cambridge, Cambridge University Press for the Royal Economic Society, 1951 [– 1955].

    First comprehensive edition of the works of the political economist David Ricardo (1772-1823).

    £650

  15. RIPLEY, Percy.

    A short history of investment.

    London, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1934.

    First edition of this work aimed at a British audience of bankers, members of the Stock Exchange and City workers, charting the history of investment from early times and the Elizabethans through to 1933, passing both prosperity, and tragedy and national debt. The work is dedicated to the financial journalist...

    £50

  16. SAY, Léon.

    [cover title: ] La Société coopérative est la meilleure des caisses d’épargne.

    Lille, L. Danel, [1866?].

    First edition. Léon Say (1826–1896), grandson of Jean-Baptiste Say, ‘became one of the most prominent statesmen of the French Third Republic. He served as Finance Minister from 1872 to 1879, and again in 1882, overseeing the largest financial operation of the century – payment of war reparations...

    £75

  17. SCHÄFFLE, Albert Eberhard Friedrich.

    Kapitalismus und Socialismus mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Geschäfts- und Vermögensformen....

    Tübingen, H. Laupp, 1870.

    First edition of one of the author’s major works. Schäffle ‘nimmt als Kritiker des Sozialismus eine besondere Stellung ein. Kein anderer Deutscher hat bisher einen so besonnenen wissenschaftlichen Versuch gemacht, in den Ideen des Sozialismus Wahres und Irriges voneinander zu scheiden, wie er in...

    £350

  18. [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

  19. [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

  20. 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