The inscription, in Morellet’s hand, notes that the work is by a Frenchman despite the title. In his Mémoires, Morellet wrote that it was “an excellent work that had been neglected; indeed, it may be said that if sound ideas regarding the theory of commercial administration first emerged in France at that time, the credit for this belongs to his zeal and insight” (1821, Vol. I, p. 37). He also included it in the catalogue of works on political economy appended to his Prospectus d'un nouveau dictionnaire de commerce (1769, p. 9). A copy of the title is listed in his sale catalogue of 1819, Catalogue des Livres de... M. l’Abbé Morellet, lot 1498.

Talleyrand stood near the centre of French politics for half a century, serving - and repeatedly betraying - Louis XVI, the Revolution, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis Philippe I. Undoubtedly one of the great diplomats of world history, his name nonetheless become synonymous with duplicity and scheming. Portions of Talleyrand’s library were sold in 1793, 1816, 1833, and the remaining books in the Château de Valençay (the estate he bought in 1803) in 1899. This title is listed as item 2,789 in the 1816 sale, held in London after Napoleon’s fall and Talleyrand’s loss of office, when his debts were pressing. The catalogue described the library as “the most splendid assemblage of fine and rare books ever submitted for public sale in this country”; the sale comprised 3,465 lots across 18 days.

William Stanley Jevons wrote, “Cantillon’s essay is, more emphatically than any other single work, the Cradle of Political Economy” (Jevons, p. 68). The Essai supplied the conceptual foundations of classical political economy and deeply influenced Quesnay and Adam Smith. The work “is notable for its model building, its analysis of market forces and the role of the entrepreneur, its outline of the circular flow of income, and its monetary theory. Cantillon was the first real model builder in economics. His method was to conceptualize the essentials of the economic world and represent them in a simplified model which became more and more complex through the provision of further interlocking elements” (ODNB).

Books That Made Europe, p. 140; Einaudi 846; En français dans le texte 159; Goldsmiths’ 8989; Kress 5423. Leigh and Sotheby, Bibliotheca Splendidissima, 1816 [Talleyrand’s sale catalogue listing this title]; William Stanley Jevons, “Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy”, The Contemporary Review, vol. 39, 1881.