Trade.- Davenant (Charles) An Essay upon the Probable Methods of making a People Gainers in the Ballance of Trade, first edition, 6 folding tables, contemporary ink signature to title, light foxing, ex-library copy with small ink stamp to title and verso of tables, modern antique-style calf ruled and stamped in blind, by Trevor Lloyd, spine gilt with red morocco label, [Goldsmiths' 3580; Kress 2114; Wing D309], 8vo, for James Knapton, 1699.

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⁂ Davenant was one of the first students of the balance of trade in England; in this work, perhaps his most coherent treatise on political arithmetic, he observed that the poor were unjustly oppressed by heavy customs and excise which benefited only a limited commercial class. It includes much in the area of what might now be called "applied" economics - population studies, marriage, immigration, family incomes, poverty, home consumption and so forth. His remarks on the poor laws, the origin of the Whig and Tory parties, and on population (based partly on the works of William Petty) are of considerable interest.