MALTHUS ON RENT. MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT. 1766-1834. An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of R...

MALTHUS ON RENT. MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT. 1766-1834. An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, and the Principles by which it is Regulated. London: John Murray, 1815. 8vo, signed in 4s (204 x 125 mm). Ad leaf after title page, unnumbered page of ads at rear (verso of text p 61). Green morocco gilt, antique. Custom cloth folding case. WITH: clipped signature of Thomas Malthus ('T.R. Malthus') laid in. Provenance: 'LHJ' (ink to title page, dated 1815, 'Febr/15'); Hon. Stanley C. Wisniewski (pencil inscription). RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF MALTHUS'S FIRST FULL EXPRESSION OF THE MALTHUSIAN-RICARDIAN THEORY OF RENT. During their dispute on the English Corn Laws during 1813-1814, Malthus and Ricardo determined to take their private conversation to the public, leading to Mathus's publication in 1815 of his Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, containing the first expression of his theory on rent. In response, Ricardo would expound upon Malthus's ideas of rent, while still reaching opposite conclusions on the corn tax, and the two fashioned a mutually agreeable platform combining Malthusian ideas on population and rent, combined with ideas on rate of profit and marginal distribution of land, that would yield the basis for Ricardian distribution and growth theory. While their dispute over the corn tax was quickly over, the ideas they wrangled over would find expression in Ricardo's landmark 1817 work Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Their public disagreement, and its resolution, would thus become the basis of a century of English economic thought. See Dorfman, 'Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo,' Journal of Economic Perspectives 3:3 (1989), pp 153-164. Goldsmith 21130; Kress B-6537. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing