Sciences economiques

18538 — A Paris, Chez l'Auteur, A Geneve, Chez Franç. Dufart, 1787. With 2 folding tables and 2 folding engraved plates. (8), 125, (1, errata), (2, prospectus) pp. 4to. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt with raised bands, very lightly rubbed, upper cover with a stain. Kress B.1204; Goldsmiths 13438; INED 1715; not in Einaudi; Biblioteca Mansutti, 564; Bibliothèque de la Compagnie d'Assurances Utrecht, i, p. 619. First edition and very rare. Du Villard de Durand, born in Geneva of an ancient French Huguenot family, was head of the statistical department of population in the office of the French ministry of the Interior. His treatise on the theory of loans repayable by constant or variable annuities was published under the auspices of the 'Académie Royale des Sciences' in Paris, with a preface by Condorcet recommanding it. In this work one also finds a demographic analysis to determine the appropriate rate on a loan which the borrower undertakes te repay in equal instalments over his lifetime.'He attempts to measure the desirability of an investment by using the expected rate of return. He also shows how one may find the period for which a given investment may give the maximum rate of return' (R.D. Theocharis, Early Developments in Mathematical Economics, p. 85). - With a name and a number in an old hand written on half-title. Rare and an important contribution to the history of mathematical economics.