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• Introduction, By Henry Higgs
• Previous Editions, By Henry Higgs
• Essay On the Nature of Trade In General
• Part One
• Part I, Chapter I: Of Wealth
• Part I, Chapter II: Of Human Societies
• Part I, Chapter III: Of Villages
• Part I, Chapter IV: Of Market Towns
• Part I, Chapter V: Of Cities
• Part I, Chapter VI: Of Capital Cities
• Part I, Chapter VII: The Labour of the Husbandman Is of Less Value Than That of the Handicrafts-man
• Part I, Chapter VIII: Some Handicrafts-men Earn More, Others Less, According to the Different Cases and Circumstances
• Part I, Chapter IX: The Number of Labourers, Handicraftsmen and Others, Who Work In a State Is Naturally Proportioned to the Demand For Them
• Part I, Chapter X: The Price and Intrinsic Value of a Thing In General Is the Measure of the Land and Labour Which Enter Into Its Production
• Part I, Chapter XI: Of the Par Or Relation Between the Value of Land and Labour
• Part I, Chapter XII: All Classes and Individuals In a State Subsist Or Are Enriched At the Expense of the Proprietors of Land
• Part I, Chapter XIII: The Circulation and Exchange of Goods and Merchandise As Well As Their Production Are Carried On In Europe By Undertakers, and At a Risk
• Part I, Chapter XIV: The Fancies, the Fashions, and the Modes of Living of the Prince, and Especially of the Landowners, Determine the Use to Which Land Is Put In a State and Cause the Variations In the Market-prices of All Things
• Part I, Chapter XV: The Increase and Decrease of the Number of People In a State Chiefly Depend On the Taste, the Fashions, and the Modes of Living of the Proprietors of Land
• Part I, Chapter XVI: The More Labour There Is In a State the More Naturally Rich the State Is Esteemed
• Part I, Chapter XVII: Of Metals and Money, and Especially of Gold and Silver
• Part Two
• Part Ii, Chapter I: Of Barter
• Part Ii, Chapter II: Of Market Prices
• Part Ii, Chapter III: Of the Circulation of Money
• Part Ii, Chapter IV: Of Further Reflection On the Rapidity Or Slowness of the Circulation of Money In Exchange
• Part Ii, Chapter V: Of the Inequality of the Circulation of Hard Money In a State
• Part Ii, Chapter VI: Of the Increase and Decrease In the Quantity of Hard Money In a State
• Part Ii, Chapter VII: Continuation of the Same Subject
• Part Ii, Chapter VIII: Further Reflection On the Same Subject
• Part Ii, Chapter IX: Of the Interest of Money and Its Causes
• Part Ii, Chapter X: Of the Causes of the Increase and Decrease of the Interest of Money In a State
• Part Three
• Part Iii, Chapter I: Of Foreign Trade
• Part Iii, Chapter II: Of the Exchanges and Their Nature
• Part Iii, Chapter III: Further Explanations of the Nature of the Exchanges
• Part Iii, Chapter IV: Of the Variations In the Proportion of Values With Regard to the Metals Which Serve As Money
• Part Iii, Chapter V: Of the Augmentation and Diminution of Coin In Denomination
• Part Iii, Chapter VI: Of Banks and Their Credit
• Part Iii, Chapter VII: Further Explanations and Enquiries As to the Utility of a National Bank
• Part Iii, Chapter VIII: Of the Refinements of Credit of General Banks
• Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy, By W. Stanley Jevons
• Life and Work of Richard Cantillon, By Henry Higgs
• Appendix a
• Appendix B: Bibliography

Previous Editions, by Henry Higgs

(1) "Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général. Traduit de l'Anglois. A Londres, Chez Fletcher Gyles dans Holborn. 1755." 12mo. Half-title, blank verso, title-page, blank verso, pages 1-430 + 6 unnumbered pages of Contents.

(2) A reprint in 1756, copying the title-page and text of the first issue, but inferior in type and paper. No half-title. Title-page, blank verso, pages 3-427 + 5 unnumbered pages of Contents. 12mo.

(3) Another reprint in 1756 in Vol. III of a collection put out by Eleazar Mauvillon, father of Jakob Mauvillon the Physiocrat. Vol. I, 1754, is entitled Discours Politiques de M. Hume and is a translation of Hume's Essays by M. de M. Vols. II and III, 1756, entitled Discours Politiques, contain reprints of French works. Cantillon's Essai is the concluding portion (pp.151-434) of vol. III. The three volumes were published at Amsterdam, "chez J. Schreuder et Pierre Mortier le jeune," 12mo. This reprint follows the original very closely, repeating e.g. the error un à un on p. 35 and including the references to the missing Supplement. In a few cases the printer or the editor has felt himself obliged to improve the French. Thus, at the end of Part II, cap. 7, le véritable degré is substituted for le degré véritable, and the conclusion of the Essai, à crever la bombe, et on verroit que ce sont des opérations très dangereuses becomes à faire crever la bombe, et on verroit que ce sont des opérations dangereuses.

(4) In 1759 was published "The Analysis of Trade, Commerce, Coin, Bullion, Banks and Foreign Exchanges. Wherein the true Principles of this useful knowledge are fully but briefly laid down and explained, to give a clear Idea of their happy Consequences to Society, when well regulated. Taken chiefly from a Manuscript of a very ingenious Gentleman deceas'd, and adapted to the present Situation of our Trade and Commerce. By Philip Cantillon, Late of the City of London, Merchant. London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by Mr Lewis in Covent Garden.... MDCCLIX. [Price Five Shillings.]" This consists of title-page, blank verso, a Preface and Table of Contents paged iii-xxiv, and pp. 1-215, 8vo. See pp. 333-5, 376-8, as to this work.

(5) In 1767 an Italian translation of the Essai appeared entitled "Saggio sulla Natura del Commercio in Generale. Autore Inglese. Venezia, 1767. Nella Stamperia di Carlo Palese," 12mo. The title-page is followed by 11 unnumbered pages, pp. 1-298, and 2 unnumbered pages at the end—"Del Commercio Italiano." An Introduction dedicated "Al Signor Vicenzo Ferrari, Mercante benemerito a Cittadino di Bassano," is dated Venezia, 3 Ottobre, 1767, and signed "Vostro veto Amico F. Scottoni." The translation has been conscientiously done but is marred by some futile additions in the body of the text such as E' piu di dieci anni che l'Autore à scritto (p. 76), Bella lezione por l'Italia! (p. 83). Scottoni's introduction of 4 pages is poor stuff. He does not seem to have heard of Cantillon, and his translation is of merely bibliographical interest. He has the grace to put into italics his interpolations.

(6) In 1892 the Essai was reproduced in facsimile "so far as was possible with type not manufactured for the purpose" for Harvard University, with a prefatory note of three pages by the present Editor. It preserves the pagination and format of the original "and even typographical errors and irregularities are left unchanged."

(7) Copious extracts from the Essai, in English, were included in the works of Malachy Postlethwayt, some of them prior to 1755 (see post, pp. 383-4).

(8) A translation into English of large sections of the Essai fills pp. 247-277 of Early Economic Thought, edited by A. E. Monroe, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 1924, 8vo.

(9) A German translation of the Essai by Frau Hella Hayek, of Vienna, has just appeared, edited with an excellent introduction of 66 pages by her husband, Dr F. A. Hayek, who obligingly communicated to me a draft of his article. This work, R. Cantillon, Abhandlung über die Natur des Handels im allgemeinen, is published by Gustav Fischer, Jena. 1931. 8vo.