De l'administration des finances de la France. 3 vols.

Paris, Panckoucke, 1784. With folding table in vol. I. VI pp., CLIX, 352 pp.; VII, 536 pp.; VIII, 468 pp. 8vo. Contemp. boards with ms. spine label (rep.). Paris, Panckoucke, 1784. First edition. Jacques Necker (1732-1804) was a Swiss banker and Louis XVI's director-general of finance. This famous justification is one of the most important contributions to economical policies prior to the French Revolution. Necker tried to finance the participation of France in the American War of Independence without levying additional taxes. His important innovation was to operate with a national debt. When he was forced to resign in 1781, he retired to Saint-Ouen where he wrote the present work. It had such an enormous success with the general reader that within a few days, more than 80'000 copies were sold. In 1788, Necker was reinstalled as finance minister, and tried to influence restraint on the political developments which led to the French Revolution. - Pp. 15/16 in vol. 2 inserted from another (shorter) copy, otherwise fine. - Kress B.752; Quérard, La France littéraire VI, 392; cf. Hoefer XXXVII, 582. ECONOMICS ;