Della economia nazionale parte prima. Libri sei.

Naples: for the author,, 1774. Praised by Karl Marx First edition, by "undoubtedly the most eminent of the Venetian economists of the 18th century" and "unquestionably the most original thinker among all Italian economists" (Palgrave). As Ortes saw the maldistribution of wealth as an evil, Marx praised him in Das Kapital as "an original and clever writer" and "one of the great economic writers... who regards the antagonism of capitalist production as a general natural law of social wealth", quoting the opening of Della economia nazionale: 'instead of projecting useless systems for the happiness of the people, I will limit myself to investigating the cause of their unhappiness.' (Tarpley). In the Economia nazionale, "Ortes endeavours to demonstrate that as 'the wealth of a nation is determined by the (previous) wants of its members, the riches of one of them cannot increase unless at the expense of another one; the bulk of existing riches is in each nation measured by its wants, and cannot by any means whatever exceed this measure'" ("Discorso preliminare"). "From this rather startling proposition, Ortes, who certainly was an original thinker, deduces the condemnation of the principles on which mercantilism was based. 'Money is only a sign of wealth, and must never be considered as being wealth itself. The error of those who mistake money for wealth, proceeds from a confusion between the equivalent of a thing and the thing itself, or between two equivalents which they consider as identical things, although they are not' (ch. ix.)" (New Palgrave). Schumpeter, describing this work, states it "will always stand out in the history of the theories that look upon consumption as the limiting factor of total output and derive from this set-up their economic diagnosis." Quarto (210 x 269 mm). Contemporary decorative paper wrappers over paste paper boards, paper shelf label at foot of spine, preserved in a custom cloth box, black leather label. Printer's device on title. Spine and corners slightly worn and faded, decorative paper covering partly eroded along joints but still very sound; final 20 leaves with damp mark to upper outer corner, final leaf with short horizontal tear not touching text; a very good copy of a scarce work, entirely untrimmed with very generous margins. Cossa, p. 4; Higgs 5899. Not in Einaudi, Goldsmiths', or Kress. Joseph Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis; Webster Tarpley, Giammaria Ortes, 1994.