‘Something wonderful and incomprehensible in their œconomy’: The English versions of Richard Cantillon's Essay on the Nature of Trade in General

Richard van den Berg

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2012, vol. 19, issue 6, 868-907

Abstract: Until at least the 1750s, a number of drafts survived of Richard Cantillon's Essay on the Nature of Trade in General , in different stages of completion. This is suggested by a paragraph-by-paragraph comparison between three versions of Cantillon's writings, namely the French Essai of 1755, fragments of Postlethwayt's Universal Dictionary (1752--1754) and Philip Cantillon's Analysis of Trade (1759). Whilst numerous variations between the texts may be attributed to free translation practice or to interventions by later editors, others cannot. A comparative study of variations may provide us with insights into the development of the ideas of this masterly economic theorist.

Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2012.735683

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