PAINE'S PROSPECTS ON THE WAR AND PAPER CURRENCY, FIRST EDITION TO CARRY HIS NAME, 1787
PAINE, Thomas. Prospects On The War and Paper Currency. London: James Ridgway, 1793. Octavo, disbound; pp. viii, 68.
Third edition, the first to carry Thomas Paine's name as author.
Originally published anonymously in London in 1787 under the title Prospects on the Rubicon, decrying a war between England and Holland and the expense it would incur. Paine had returned to England after 13 years in America; he was deeply concerned "about the threatening war between England and France over Holland, and decided to publish anonymously in December 1787, a warning. In this pamphlet he states that 'war involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances, such a combination of foreign matters, that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but one thing certain, and that is increase of taxes'" (Gimbel). The opening Advertisement to the present edition notes that Paine predicted the financial mess that England would endure, stating that the work is being reprinted "in order that [the people of England] may judge how far credit is to be given to the wild theories of Mr. Paine." Half title present, though loosening. Gimbel-Yale 49. ESTC T5862.
Light wear and soiling to outer leaves, light foxing. A very good copy.