THE FORERUNNER OF KEYNES’ GENERAL THEORY: FIRST EDITION OF A TRACT ON MONETARY REFORM, 1923

KEYNES, John Maynard. A Tract on Monetary Reform. London: Macmillan, 1923. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $1800.

First edition of Keynes’ breakthrough work in the field of economics, in scarce dust jacket.

"To those who wish to seek early indications of the theories that were later to appear in the General Theory, the Tract is the most rewarding source. In it will be found, above all, the clearest possible demonstration of Keynes's abiding interest in the objective of stabilizing the level of business activity" (Roll, A History of Economic Thought, 444). Though Keynes' Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) and the Treatise on Probability (1921) earned him wide recognition as a publicist of political and economic matters and as a rare literary talent in the field, his reputation as a deeply original thinker with a consistent and interrelated theory of economics was not established until the publication of A Tract on Monetary Reform. In this breakthrough work Keynes identifies inflation and deflation as the basic evils, and asserts that capitalism must have a stable standard of value. He rails against the venerable gold standard, calling it a "barbarous relic," and points towards a future of managed fiat currencies. With one leaf of advertisements at rear.

Book fine, scarce dust jacket near-fine, with only toning to extremities. A handsome copy.