18786 — A Rouen, De l'Imprimerie de Dame Besongue, 1789. With 16 tables, some folding, one covering 7 separate pages, and one covering 24 pages. vi, (7)-238 pp. 4to. Modern half morocco, marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt lettering. Sabin 32638 (incomplete copy); not in Leclerc; Fay 25; not in Howes; Kress B.1719 (incomplete copy); Goldsmiths 13832; not in Einaudi. The first French edition, the rare Quarto edition, translation was due to De Rumare, a magistrate in Rouen. There was another 4to edition printed in 1789, "A Londres, aux dépens de la Compagnie, which did not have the "Table des Matières" (and had 230 pages as a consequence). A detailed exposition and statistical comparison of the imports and exports of Great Britain and the United States, from 1700 to 1783. With each edition, Sheffield substantially revised and enlarged the text. Written in opposition to the bill introduced by Pitt in 1783, proposing to relax the navigation laws in favour of the States, the work was influential in determining the abandonment of the motion. Sheffield points up the weak position of America and continually stresses the growing commercial importance and potential of the West Indies and Canada (especially Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, particularly with regard to fisheries, lumber, and ship-building). Howes writes that the work was very influential in shaping England's trade policy from 1783 to 1789, so detrimental to American commerce and shipping interests as to contribute greatly to the formation of a Federal union, better able, than were the separate federated states, to retaliate against British maritime might.The tables provide extensive statistical information, giving a comparative export and import survey of the trade between the United States and other countries. This translation from the English original was due to De Rumare, magistrate at Rouen. The later Mirabeau translation did not include the statistical tables. - Nice copy with marginal annotations and good margins.
