Beschreibung:

NECKER, Jacques (1732-1804). De l'administration des finances de la France . [Paris: no printer], 1784.
NECKER, Jacques (1732-1804). De l'administration des finances de la France . [Paris: no printer], 1784. 3 volumes, 8° (207 x 131mm). Half-titles, folding typographic table in vol. I, 2 leaves of 'Supplement' at end of vol. II, errata leaves at end of vols I and III. (V2 in vol. II irregularly cut at top corner, short marginal tear to Bb6 in vol. III.) Slightly later red morocco, covers with roll-tooled border enclosing central gilt arms of Paul I and Maria Feodorovna, spines richly gilt with raised bands, green morocco gilt lettering-pieces, gilt edges (extremities faintly rubbed, spines fractionally faded). Provenance : MARIA FEODOROVNA (underlining and annotation in pencil, particularly in vol. II, most probably written on larger, uncut sheets as several of her notes which extend beyond the current text-block dimensions are folded in a preserved in vol. III). FIRST EDITION: A LARGE-PAPER COPY, PRINTED ON THICK 'PAPIER DE HOLLANDE', ANNOTATED BY TSARINA MARIA FEODOROVNA AND BOUND FOR HER, WITH HER COAT OF ARMS GILT ON SIDES. Regarded as the vade-mecum of the statesman, the book enjoyed international notoriety. According to McCulloch, it is 'the only authentic account of the finances of France previously to the Revolution'. The Genevan banker and father of Mme de Staël, Jacques Necker twice became the Finance Minister of Louis XVI; he was expelled by the Revolution he had anticipated. The enthusiastic autograph notes by the Tsarina Maria Feodorovna, all in French, are testimony to the breadth of Necker's views of what a good economical power should be. These notes were regarded important enough to have been preserved by the binder who cut out the blank paper around them and folded the annotated parts. Rahir, Bibliothè que de l ’ amateur 1924, p.560; McCulloch, The Literature of Political Economy, 1845, p. 347; Soultrait 18 th century 108.