“AMONG THE VERY GREATEST OF ECONOMISTS”

JEVONS, William Stanley. The Principles of Economics. A Fragment of a Treatise on the Industrial Mechanism of Society and Other Papers. London: Macmillan, 1905. Octavo, original brick cloth. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $1500.

First edition of this posthumously published volume, including some essays printed here for the first time.

Jevons has been described by Stigler as the "forerunner of neo-classical economics," by Marshall as "among the very greatest of economists" and by Schumpeter as "one of the most genuinely original economists who ever lived" (Einaudi 3070). In this book, Jevons sets out the mathematical principles of his Theory of Political Economy of 1871 in plain language for the general reader. Not completed before his untimely death in 1882, it was published from posthumous papers, edited by Henry Higgs, who added a preface and four essays, published previously in periodicals or hitherto unpublished. The essays deal with Cantillon and the nationality of political economy, the future of political economy, the match tax and the pressure of taxation. Three owner inkstamps (upper corners of pages 41, 167 and 229). Faint evidence of shelf label removal to spine head.

A few gatherings unopened at top edge. Original cloth with light rubbing to extremities. Inner paper hinges expertly reinforced. A near-fine copy.