Discourses Upon Trade: Principally Directed to the Cases of the Interest, Coynage, Clipping, Increase of Money

By Sir Dudley North

The circumstances under which the remarkable tract here reprinted, was written and published are described by Sir Dudley North’s brother and biographer, Roger North. It is doubtful whether the essay, as originally printed, received any attention or served any use. For a considerable period, indeed, it was supposed to be entirely lost. Writing in 1744, Roger North intimated that the tract was designedly suppressed, and declared “it is certain the pamphlet is, and hath been ever since, utterly sunk, and a copy not to be had for money.”… [From the Introduction by Jacob H. Hollander]

Book Cover

Translator/Editor

Jacob H. Hollander, ed.

First Pub. Date

1691

Publisher

Baltimore, MD: Lord Baltimore Press

Pub. Date

1907

Copyright

The text of this edition is in the public domain.

Professor of Political Economy

Johns Hopkins University

INTRODUCTION

by Jacob H. Hollander, Ph. D.

The circumstances under which the remarkable tract here reprinted, was written and published are described by Sir Dudley North’s brother and biographer, Roger North.
*1 It is doubtful whether the essay, as originally printed, received any attention or served any use. For a considerable period, indeed, it was supposed to be entirely lost. Writing in 1744, Roger North intimated that the tract was designedly suppressed, and declared “it is certain the pamphlet is, and hath been ever since, utterly sunk, and a copy not to be had for money.”
*2

North’s work remained neglected and forgotten for more than a century. With the heightened interest in economic discussion growing out of the Bank restriction and the corn-law debates, the attention of the little group of liberals, just then beginning to call themselves with some confidence “political economists”, was drawn by the references, in Roger North’s biographies, to the “Discourses” and to the economic opinions of Sir Dudley North.
*3

We are told, that many searches and inquiries were thereafter made for the pamphlet, but without result. Not until the sale of Ruding’s library was a copy brought to light, taken to Edinburgh, and a small, admirably printed impression struck off from the Ballantyne press, with an unsigned prefatory “Advertisement.”
*4 We may suspect McCulloch, then doubtless beginning his great collection of economic texts, of being both purchaser and editor. Certainly it is to this indefatigable Scotch bibliophile-economist that the circulation of the tract and the appreciation of its author were thenceforth due.
*5

In 1846 the pamphlet was again issued in limited edition by the Blacks, probably through McCulloch’s influence and with a preface not unlikely from his pen, and in 1856 it was included in the ‘select collection of early English tracts on commerce’ edited by McCulloch for the Political Economy Club. All of these reprints have become but a degree less scarce than the original tract.

North’s essay is of interest rather than of influence in the development of economic thought and action. Even here cautious critics may not concur in McCulloch’s unqualified verdict that the tract contains “a more able and comprehensive statement of the true principles of commerce than any that had primarily appeared, either in the English or any other language.”
*6 But withal the pamphlet is a notable performance, and its re-issue in accessible form will be welcomed by students of the history of economic theory.

The present edition is a reprint of the “Discourses” as issued in 1691. The general appearance of the title page has been preserved, and the original pagination has been indicated.
*7

BALTIMORE,
January, 1907.

Discourses

UPON

TRADE;

Principally Directed to the

CASES

OF THE

Interest, Coynage, Clipping, Increase, of MONEY.

LONDON:
Printed for
Tho. Basset, at the
George in
Fleet-Street. 1691.

“The Life of the Hon. Sir Dudley North.” 4to. London, 1744; also “The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North…, the Hon. Sir Dudley North…, and the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North….” A new edition. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1826.

Ibid., 8vo ed., vol. III, p. 173.

“Preface” to reprint of 1846.

q. v.

It was a copy of this reprint of 1822 which Lord Murray sent to Ricardo, and concerning which Ricardo wrote to McCulloch: “I had no idea that anyone entertained such correct opinions, as are expressed in this publication, at so early a period.” See “Letters of David Ricardo to John Ramsay McCulloch”, ed. Hollander (New York, 1895), p. 126.

“The Literature of Political Economy” (London, 1845), p. 42.

The formal collation of the tract is as follows: Title page, reverse blank; Preface, ten folios without pagination; Text, twenty-three folios; Postscript, five folios without pagination. Size, small 4to.

The Preface

Double vertical bars, ||, denote page breaks in the original 1691 North text, with page numbers when available (e.g., |2|). The bars and numbers were inserted by Hollander and are preserved in this Econlib edition.—Econlib Ed.

De Arte Poetica, 70.

The first two books of Montaigne’s “Essays” were published in 1580, the third in 1588.

10.

“Scaligeriana, sive Excerpta ex ore Josephi Scaligeri”—a collection of the familiar conversations of Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), the classicist and scholar—was first printed at The Hague in 1666, and in various editions thereafter. Des Maizeaux, a later editor and the literary historian of the work, characterizes it as “le pere de tous les livres qu’ on a publiez sous le titre d’ ANA” (cf. “Scaligerana, Thuana, Perroniana, Pithoeana, et Colomesiana…avec les notes de plusiers savans.” 2 vol. 12°. Amsterdam, 1740).

11.

Probably “Perroniana,” a collection of the epigrams and observations—critical, historical, and moral—of Cardinal du Perron, made by Christophle du Puy and first published in 1669 (cf. Des Maizeaux, note 3, above).

12.

Pascal’s “Pensées” first appeared in 1670, eight years after the author’s death, in garbled and fragmentary form.

13.

Selden’s “Table Talk” was edited by his secretary, Richard Milward, and printed in 1689.

Chapter I

Categories: Roger North