Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy.

first edition

The first edition of this collection of five essays by J.S. Mill on themes of political economy, published 4-years prior to his major treatise on the subject.

They address in turn, the laws of commercial interchange between nations, the influence of consumption upon production, the meaning of the terms 'productive' and 'unproductive', the relationship between productivity and profit, and the rate of interest, and the meaning of political economy.

All previously unpublished but for the fifth essay. Written between 1829 and 1830, they offer a fascinating insight into the development of Mill's economic theory, and the influence of the teachings of David Ricardo and Adam Smith thereon, in the lead up to the publication of his Principles of Political Economy in 1848.

First edition; 8vo (23 x 15 cm); 4pp publisher's ads to rear, marginal annotations in pen to pp.105-105, and faintly elsewhere where they have been mostly erased; 20th-century calf-backed marbled boards, red morocco lettering-piece to spine, corners slightly bumped, minor wear, very good; 164, [4]pp.