16641 — A Leyde, & se vend à Leipsick, en Foire, Chez J.F. Bassompierre, Fils, 1768-1774. With engraved portrait-frontispiece and five folding tables. 3 volumes. xii, 608 pp.; iv, 635, (1) pp.; xvi, 800 pp. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, spines gilt with raised bands, red labels with gilt lettering, red edges, a bit rubbed. Not in Kress; not in Goldsmiths; not in Einaudi; not in Humpert; INED 496 (vols 1-2 only); Higgs 2422; Leblanc 240; Carpenter, Economic Bestsellers, XX.9. Improved, revised and augmented edition, with the third volume. Baron Bielfeld was personal advisor to Frederick II of Prussia and mentor to Prince Ferdinand. His Institutions aims at examining the foundations of the modern state and at outlining a science of government. His perspective is economic as well as political; his leanings are towards policies of free trade, granting timely independence to colonies, and the fight against poverty. He traces a history of political arithmetic citing Graunt, Petty, Süssmilch and the English and French 'calculateurs', and examines the sources of the wealth of nations, devoting particular attention to trade, and mentioning the effects of American lands and resources on Spain and Britain.'Cet ouvrage est écrit à l'usage des gouvernants. Il concerne l'art de règner. Bielfeld veut réduire la politique en système, la transformer en une science qui puisse être enseignée. Il divise ses Institutions Politiques en deux parties: 1: Tout ce qui regarde l'intérieur d'un État: cadre législatifs et politiques, finances, manufactures, commerce, navigation, armée, marine ....; 2: Tout ce qui concerne la politique étrangère et les rapports d'un État avec les autres puissances' (Leblanc).'This is essentially a cameralistic guide for rulers. Bielfeld, although a German, first published his books in French; he relied in large measure upon the French data and writers' (Spengler, French predecessors of Malthus, p. 79). The Supplément aux Institutions Politiques pour cette nouvelle édition is to be found in the second volume covering the pages 557-628."This Cameralistic treatise is by a Prussian state official. It was more successful outside Germany than any other Cameralistic work, presumably because it was written in the international language of the Eighteenth Century -- French" (Carpenter, Economic Bestsellers, XX.9).
