Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices.

New Haven: Yale University Press; Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, London,, 1925. The author's "startlingly original PhD thesis" First edition in book form, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed "To D. Spring-Rice from Irving Fisher" on the front wrapper recto, with Spring Rice's bookplate on the front wrapper verso. Dominick Spring Rice (1891-1940), a financier, worked as an advisor to the British Mission to Russia in close contact with John Maynard Keynes. Fisher's "startlingly original PhD thesis" (Blaug, p. 78) contained, among other things, the design of a machine to illustrate general equilibrium in a multi-market economy. This work expounds his monetary theories and established his international reputation. "Fisher's aim in his Mathematical Investigations was to present a general mathematical model of the determination of value and prices. He claimed to have specified the equations of general economic equilibrium for the case of independent goods... It appears that, although only a student, Fisher had independently developed a theory of general economic equilibrium that was identical to part of Walras's and included the concept of the indifference surface, one of the fundamental bases of modern economic theory" (IESS, V). The work was originally published in Transactions of the Connecticut Academy in 1892. Octavo. Original paper wrappers. Photographic frontispiece and plate. Graphs and diagrams in the text. Light bumping and rubbing, minor browning to wrappers and contents: a near-fine copy. Fisher E-8. Mark Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, 1997.