Cantillon’s first-edition ‘Essai’ makes £40,000 at Christie’s auction

A first edition copy of Kerryman Richard Cantillon's 18th-century book on economics has sold for a record price of £40,000 (about €57,000) at Christie's in London.

The auction house described Essai Sur la Nature du Commerce en Général (Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General) as "one of the most influential works in the literature of economics".

Cantillon was virtually forgotten in his native country until "rehabilitated" by The Irish Times in 2009 when the newspaper chose his name for its Business comment column. He was born, precise date unknown, during the 1680s at Ballyheigue, a coastal village located between Tralee and Ballybunion. He moved to Paris as a young man, where he acquired French citizenship, became a banker and made a fortune in property speculation.

Published

He is believed to have written the book in 1730, but it was not published until 1755, some 21 years after his death in London in mysterious circumstances in a house fire.

According to the title page, the publisher was Gyles Fletcher of Holborn, London, but Christie’s said the book was probably printed in Paris.

Regarded as the first major treatise of modern economics, Cantillon coined the term "entrepreneur" and wrote about topics such as employment, wages, trade, population trends, currency , foreign exchange and trading of precious metals. The book became hugely influential among future economists, including Adam Smith.

Only a few copies of the first edition are known to have survived. It is now regarded as one of the world’s most collectible rare books. Only five first-edition copies have appeared at auction during the past 20 years. One sold in New York 14 years ago for $52,500 and another in Paris five years ago for €37,950.

Christie's said its copy, which sold on June 15th to an unnamed buyer, had been consigned to auction by a retired Swiss banker and rare book collector and was originally owned by 18th-century French aristocrat François-Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the man who warned Louis XVI the French revolution was about to start.

Sven Becker of Christie's books department said in addition to being rare, Cantillon's Essai has "relevance far beyond the field of economics; it changed the course of human understanding and no serious collection of important books is complete without it".