Report of the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion (bound with) The Question Concerning the Depreciation of our Currency Stated and Examined, The Third Edition, Corrected [by W. Huskisson] (bound with) The High Price of Bullion, A Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes, The Fourth Edition, Corrected [by David Ricardo] (bound with) Practical Observations on the Report of the Bullion-Committee, Second Edition, Corrected [by Charles Bosanquet] (bound with) Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges, with a View to Our Present Circumstances, The Second Edition [by George Chalmers]

Bosanquet, Charles; Chalmers, George; Huskisson, W.; Ricardo, David [1772-1823]

Published by Various, 1811

About this Item

A sammelband of five tracts, all relating to the 19th century Bullionist Controversy, sparked by the Bank of England's decoupling of gold and paper currency in 1797. "The Bullion Report of 1810 holds a unique place in monetary controversy. It is probably the most famous public document in the history of economics" (Fetter). The Bullion Committee was established to study the rising cost of gold, ultimately determining that the Bank of England's decoupling of gold and paper currency had led to the printing of an excess of money. David Ricardo's treatise on the high price of bullion argued in favor of the convertibility of banknotes into gold as a way of controlling inflation. As McCulloch states: "In this tract Mr Ricardo showed that redundancy and deficiency of currency are only relative terms; and that so long as the currency of any particular country consists exclusively of gold and silver coins, or of paper immediately convertible into such coins, its value can neither rise above nor fall below the value of the metallic currencies of other countries, by a greater sum than will suffice to defray the expense of importing foreign coin or bullion, if the currency be deficient; or of exporting a portion of the existing supply, if it be redundant." Ricardo played a prominent role as an advocate of the Bullion Report's findings, and he testified at numerous parliamentary committees before entering the Commons as MP for Portarlington from 1819 to 1823. Ricardo's treatise proved popular, with the fourth edition - present here - printed in 1811 in a significantly expanded form, nearly double the length of the first edition (66 pages, with a 31 page Appendix). Despite its widespread popularity at the time of its publication - and its relative importance to the controversy - all contemporaneous editions of Ricardo's treatise are rare on the market. The lone copy of the first edition to appear at auction over the last several years (Reiss & Sohn, 2023) saw a hammer price of 15000 euros. Institutional holdings are also relatively few: OCLC locates 16 copies of the first edition, two copies of the third edition, and no copies of the fourth edition. The version of the Report of the Select Committee present here is also rare, with six copies in OCLC, and the Bosanquet treatise is likewise rare, with only four copies in OCLC. Contemporaneous underlining and marginalia to several pages of the Report of the Select Committee and Husskison tracts; wrinkling to the half title of the Ricardo tract, with ring stain to p. 13, and a tear to p. 75/6 of the Appendix; light foxing and spotting internally, but in all a handsomely bound series of economic tracts.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1727803757019

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Report of the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion (bound with) The Question Concerning the Depreciation of our Currency Stated and Examined, The Third Edition, Corrected [by W. Huskisson] (bound with) The High Price of Bullion, A Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes, The Fourth Edition, Corrected [by David Ricardo] (bound with) Practical Observations on the Report of the Bullion-Committee, Second Edition, Corrected [by Charles Bosanquet] (bound with) Considerations on Commerce...
• Publisher: Various
• Publication Date: 1811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 4th Edition.
• Condition: Very Good