[ACCARIAS DE SERIONNE, Jacques (1709-1792)]

La richesse de la Hollande, ouvrage dans lequel on expose l'origine du commerce & de la puissance des Hollandois; l'accroissement successif de leur commerce & de leur navigation; les causes qui ont contribue a leur progres, celles qui tendent a les detruire; & les moyens qui peuvent servir a les relever.

      Londres, aux depens de la Compagnie 1778. 2 volumes in 1. 4to. XVI,384; [IV],371,9p. Contemp. calf-backed marbled boards, very light wear to top and foot of back, back label gone. A strong and bright copy on large paper. First edition. A historical treatise on the commerce and trade of the Dutch Republic, the causes of its prosperity in the past, the reasons for its present decline, and the means for recovery. Most bibliographers attribute this book to the French lawyer Accarias de Serionne, an opponent of the ideas of the philosophers and the Physiocrats. It has also been attributed to the Dutch jurist, philosopher and bookseller Elie Luzac (1723-1796), who published a Dutch work (Hollands rijkdom, 1780) which was only nominally a translation from the present French book. In the preface to this Dutch adaptation Luzac writes that he made it because he wanted to demonstrate 'in which way ... such a book should be treated ... even more so, because ... so many had kept him [Luzac] for the author of this [French] book'. An 8vo-edition appeared the same year. *Kress B.96. Einaudi 4767. INED 13 & 2987bis. EHB 1245a. (#13342)