Aside from providing both printed and e-books for education, research and recreation, the University Library and the Rotterdamsch Leeskabinet also collect books with a view to supplement and enrich our special collections of often older, printed books. These works are available for consultation upon request only. This exposition shows a small selection of last year’s acquisitions from the field of economics.
Economics
Economics is a focus of the UL's collection. In Special Collections we have many historical publications and sources for the study of the history of economic thought. These include books by influential economists such as Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Jan Tinbergen, etc., as well as older publications, on, for example, the value of money, exchange rates and political-economic tracts.
Jeremy Bentham, Defence of usury, shewing the impolicy of the present legal restraints on the terms of pecuniary bargains, in a series of letters to a friend, to which is added, a letter to Adam Smith, on the discouragements opposed by the above restraints to the progress of inventive industry, Dublin (printed for Messrs. D. Williams, Colles, White, Byrne, Lewis, Jones, and Moore) 1788. N 200 A 37.
Josiah Child (1630-1699) was a British merchant and governor of The East India Company. His New discourse of trade (1st ed. 1668) became a standard work of mercantilism, the view that policy should aim to maximize exports and minimize imports, in order to promote trade surpluses and build up monetary reserves. Child, following the example of economic policy in the Netherlands, promoted low interest rates, which should be guaranteed by the government.
The 1698 edition and the 1754 French translation also contain an essay by Thomas Culpeper (1621) on the detrimental effects of (usurious) interest rates on the economy.
Josiah Child, Traités sur le commerce et sur les avantages qui résultent de la reduction de l’interest de l’argent […]; avec un petit traité contre l’usure, par le chevalier Thomas Culpeper, Amsterdam/Berlin (chez Jean Neaulme) 1754. N 200 A 03
Rare edition of the treatise on the benefits of free interest rates first published in 1787. British jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was a classical liberal and advocate of free trade and free interest rates. Government intervention was to be limited to areas such as education and law; the interests of society took precedence over those of the individual. He was the founder of utilitarianism, the view that man by nature strives to increase pleasure and reduce discomfort and pain.
Right: Jeremy Bentham, Defence of usury, shewing the impolicy of the present legal restraints on the terms of pecuniary bargains, in a series of letters to a friend, to which is added, a letter to Adam Smith, on the discouragements opposed by the above restraints to the progress of inventive industry, Dublin (printed for Messrs. D. Williams, Colles, White, Byrne, Lewis, Jones, and Moore) 1788. N 200 A 37.
French translation of The present state of the nation (1768), attributed to William Knox (1732-1810), who, under the supervision of George Grenville (1712-1770), former prime minister of England, takes stock of England's economic problems after the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). He outlines the perspective of a society in which the mother country and the American colonies operate in unison to promote (British) prosperity. Knox was a political adviser and pamphleteer, having returned from Georgia, where he owned a plantation and its enslaved people.
Also in this binding are the letters written by the British Jane Vigor Goddwin during her 11-year stay in St Petersburg. The edition was published in 1776 by the Rotterdam printer Jacques Bronkhorst.
[William Knox] en George Grenville, Tableau de l’Angleterre, relativement a son commerce et ses finances […], Londres et Paris (chez Desaint, Librairie) 1769. N 200 A 46.
,The true interest and political maxims of the Republick of Holland and West-Friesland is the English translation of the internationally influential writing Interest van Holland, ofte gronden van Hollands welvaren (1662), written by Pieter de La Court, who explained the economic success of the Republic as the result of the political (and economic) policy of the pensionary of state Johan de Witt. The Orangist Frenchman Jean Nicolas de Parival (1605-1669) wrote this manifesto of 1662 against Pieter de La Court's treatise. According to him, Holland had to submit to the Union and the stadholder.
De Mably criticizes the ideas of the Physiocrats, who advocated self-interest and a completely free trade. De Mably argues for a society based on justice and equality and an economic model following the example of the classical Greeks and Romans. It is an interesting contribution to the intellectual debate in France prior to the French Revolution.
Monsieur l’Abbé de Mably [Gabriel Bonnot de Mably], Doutes proposés aux philosophes économistes sur l’ordre naturel et essential des sociétés politiques, La Haye (s.n.) 1768. N 200 A 30.
Little is known about the author of this book, Andreas Cless, despite the popularity of his 'Schwätz-Gesichter' (chattering faces). In this book, Cless narrates from a personification of raison d'état [justification for a nation's foreign policy on the basis that the nation's own interests are primary]. On the title print, this raison d'état is depicted as the sleepy, three-headed figure in the bed. On the left is a woman, holding a scroll with 'Particular Brieffe und kluger Leute Gutachten' (= Particular letters and opinions of clever people) on it. She stands bent over raison d'état and whispers 'veritas' (= truth). On the other side stands another woman, also with a scroll, but saying 'Zeitunge Advisen und Herr Omnis Geschwätzt (= Opinions of newspapers [fake news?] and Mr Omni's gossip). She too bends over, but whispers 'mendacia' (= lies).
In the book, raison d'état recounts three dreams. These dreams all follow the tenor of Cless's views on politics in Europe. His idea is that because of France's cruel policies, and the weakness and selfishness of European (German) princes, the European balance has been upset.
A mysterious book. Doubtful attribution to Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, baron de l'Aulne (1727-1781), controller-general of France under Louis XVI. Printed possibly in Amsterdam or Paris, rather than London. Severely prosecuted attack on the Fermiers-Généraux, forbidden already in 1776. 'Diatribe sanglante contre les fermiers généraux et les abus scandaleux de leurs agents. L'auteur met en scene un malheureux dont les 'suppôts de la ferme' ont ruiné la famille et fait périr le père de chagrin'.
In this work, the author suggests to abolish the tax system in use as it is injust and odious, of relatively little profit to the king but very profitable for the tax tenants and hard-pressing on the population. The work describes in detail the various taxes in place, their effects, the cruel practices of the tax tenants, the uneven division of the taxes and the disastrous effects. It is told in the form of a story: the anonymous author recounts the story of his father and his family and how they were, little by little, driven to complete ruin. His father, responsible for the collecting of taxes in his village, is thrown in jail and his possessions are confiscated by the tax tenants because of his inability to raise the requested taxes from the other taxable inhabitants of his village.
The Ferme Générale was an institution in France during the ancien régime to collect indirect taxes and customs duties. Every six years, the collection of these taxes was leased. Tax tenants were responsible for collection and passed on a fixed amount of revenue to the treasury every year. The system was established in 1681 by minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and was abolished after the French Revolution.
Above and right: Pierre André …, Sur les finances, ouvrage posthume de Pierre André …, fils d'un bon laboureur, mis au jour par Mr. *, curé D*., Londen [wrsch. Parijs of Amsterdam] 1775. N 200 A 21.
A survey of, among other things, exchange rates in Europe's major trading places, at a time when there was little standardisation and certainly no euro. Such publications were indispensable tools for traders operating across borders.
Joseph-René Ruelle, Operations des changes des principals places de l’Europe […], 2de éd., revue, corrigée et augmentee […], Lyon (chez Les Libraires Associés) 1775. N 200 A 04.
Overview of France's trade with Canada, Louisiana (USA), Santo Domingo, Martinique, Sénégal and Guinea. The publication also includes information on the slave trade and the state of the economy in the French and British colonies in North America in the 18th century.
[Pierre André O'Heguerty, comte de Magnières, 1700-1763], Essai sur les intérets du commerce maritime, à La Haye 1754. N 200 A 06.
Tio Poo Tjiang was the first student from the Dutch East Indies to receive a PhD from the NHH (Netherlands School of Commerce) in Rotterdam. He was the son of a sugar plantation owner in Java.
In the photo, he is flanked by paranimfen L. van Deventer (left) and H.M. Hirschfeld (right). H.M. Hirschfeld was secretary-general at the Department of Trade, Industry and Shipping (Ministry of Economic Affairs) before and during the German occupation; he had received his doctorate in Rotterdam in 1922.
Tio Poo Tjiang, De suikerhandel van Java, proefschrift Nederlandsche Handels-Hoogeschool Rotterdam, 15 november 1923. A 200 A 04.
The first issue of the magazine of the National Anti Polyp Action (NAPA) was published in January 1939. A group of Dutch people turned against the growing power of multinationals and big business at the expense of the free middle class. In the logo, we see the multinationals as a squid ('polyp'), trying to overpower the lion with its tentacles. Unilever and Philips are particularly to blame and it was advocated not to buy and sell products from the large firms. Among those active in the movement were the liberal-progressive politician H.P. Marchant, but also reformed minister and later Nazi sympathiser J.R.J. Schut, who compared big business to Satan. The magazine contains beautiful, very outspoken cartoons and mockery verses. Because of World War II and the German occupation, NAPA was disbanded in August 1940.