Principles of Political Economy: Considered with a View to Their Practical Application.

London: John Murray, 1820. If Only Malthus, Instead of Ricardo, Had Been the Parent Stem From Which

Nineteenth-Century Economics Proceeded, What a Much Wiser

and Richer Place the World Would be Today"

MALTHUS, T[homas] R[obert]. Principles of Political Economy. Considered with a View to Their Practical Application. London: John Murray, 1820.

First edition. Octavo. vi, [1]2-601[602].

Original boards, uncut. With original paper label on spine. Hinges expertly and almost invisibly repaired. Old bookplate from "The Library of Victoria" with no other library markings. A very clean copy, internally fine. Very scarce in original boards. Housed in a custom quarter black morocco clamshell, gilt-stamped.

First edition of Malthus' principal contribution to economic theory. Schumpeter describes Malthus' work in relation to that of his predecessors, Adam Smith and Ricardo, as follows: "Ricardo's work...started with the Wealth of Nations and recoined the latter's theoretical contents by a method that centered in the concept of value. Exactly the same thing is evidently true of the work of Malthus...except for his theory of saving and investment, which on the face of it seems to be Malthus's own, all the elements that enter into the analytic apparatus of that work, and even its terminological arrangements, point to the First book of the Wealth of Nations. Only, whereas Ricardo recoined the doctrine of Wealth by means of the labor-quantity theory of value, Malthus recoined it by the means of the theory of value that A. Smith actually used, namely, the theory of supply and demand...[whereas] Ricardo's analytic apparatus is geared to the problem of distribution...Malthus... geared his apparatus to the analysis of the whole economic process...Therefore, Malthus should...stand in the history of analysis not only as the author of a valid alternative to Ricardo's theory but as the sponsor (or rather as one of the sponsors) of the victorious one."

"Although Malthus is best known for the views on population contained in his Essay on Population...there can be no doubt that his importance for economists today rests mainly on his Principles of Political Economy (1820). It was because of the latter work that J. M. Keynes reinstated Malthus as a major figure in modern economic thought". (New Palgrave). Cress C577.

HBS 66825.

$7,500.