L'Ordre naturel et essentiel des sociétés politiques.

A Londres, Chez J. Nourse, & se trouve à Paris, Chez Desaint, 1767. (2), vii, (1, Fautes à Corriger), 511, (1) pp. 4to. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt in compartments, label with gilt lettering, joints starting to split but holding firm, a bit rubbed and worn. Weulersse, i, p. xxviii; Kress 6475; Goldsmiths 10269; Higgs 3979; INED 2794; Einaudi 3307 (the 8vo edition in 2 volumes); May, Le Mercier de la Rivière, 163. First edition, the rare 4to edition. The rare 4to edition by 'the ablest expositor of this (the physiocratic) system' (McCulloch). It was written following Le Mercier's retirement from Parliament in 1759. Praised by Adam Smith and Diderot amongst others, L'Ordre naturel was, according to Palgrave, considered more highly than l'Esprit des Loix by some contemporaries. The author argues that there is a natural law of property which is based on the physical order of nature, and which underlies all other laws. Taxation and the use of public revenue by the ruler are both governed by natural law of property. Schumpeter lists this work as the second textbook of Physiocrat orthodoxy.Catherina II of Russia invited the author to her court, and it provoked Voltaire's l'Homme aux quarante écus and Mably's vehement criticism in his Doutes proposés aux Philosophes économistes. - Faint library stamp on half-title, handwritten ex-libris of Lussac in blank upper outer margin of title.