Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Ten - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

InXuential German Merchants’ Handbook
41 BOHN, Gottfried Christian. Wohlerfahrener Kaufmann, oder
umständliche Nachricht mit was für Waaren, Münze, Maaße und Gewichte
die vornehmsten Städte in Deutschland, Spanien, Portugall,
Frankreich, England ... verkehren ... nebst einer ausführlichen Anweisung
zum italienischen Buchhalten dem kaufmännischen Briefwechsel,
und mehrern nöthigen Handelssachen beygefüget werden.
Viel vermehrte und verbesserte Ausgabe. Hamburg, Johann C. Bohn,
1762. £1400
8vo, pp. double-page engraved frontispiece, [ii], [vi], 884, [8] contents,
errata; title printed in red and black, numerous tables in the text,
frontispiece engraved by J. C. G. Fritzsch; contemporary full calf, gilt;
extremities a little rubbed, a Wne copy.
Fourth edition (Wrst 1719) of Bohn’s inXuential merchants’ handbook,
much praised for its comprehensiveness and detail. Beginning with Hamburg,
information is given on German and other European trading places,
covering exchange rates, weights and measures, products both for import
and export, trading practices etc. A substantial section, extending to 150
pages, contains an introduction to double-entry or Italian book-keeping for
merchants based on Rademann. In addition to basic accounts, complicated
transactions are included too, such as accounting for loans, lotteries, maritime
investments. Bohn’s handbook was the most popular German commercial
handbook of the eighteenth century.
Goldsmiths’–Kress 9762; Higgs 2782; Humpert 6356; see Historical Accounting
Literature p. 28 for 1750 edition; all early editions are uncommon.
Exploitation of Colonial Resources
42 [BOLTS, William.] Stato Civile Politico, e Commerciante del
Regno di Bengala ovvero Storia delle Conquiste e
dell’Amministrazione della Compagnia Inglese in quelle Contrade.
Opera Divisa in due Tomi. Che vengono a formare I Tomi XIX. E
XX in seguito della Storia FilosoWca, e Politica dell’Abate Rainal.
Tome Primo [–Tomo Secondo]. 1780. £680
Two volumes, pp. [ii], 199; [ii], 208, [1], with large folding engraved
map bound after the Wrst title; occasional light spotting and browning;
uncut in the original buV coloured limp boards; a Wne set.
Rare Wrst edition in Italian of Bolts’ Considerations on India aVairs; particularly
respecting the present state of Bengal and its dependencies (1772), his strident
attack on the East India Company’s management of Indian commerce.
Bolts exposed British exploitation of the resources of Bengal, and criticised
colonial government in general. Despite its sententiousness his work was a
valuable contemporary source on the conditions in Bengal and India, and
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue ten
was presumably used by Adam Smith, who had a copy of Bolts’ Considerations
in his library, when he wrote of the miserable state of Bengal and other
English settlements as being the fault of the policies of ‘the mercantile company
which oppresses and domineers in the East Indies’ ( Book I, chapter 8).
Rare, not found in NUC, RLIN and OCLC, where just one copy of the second
edition of 1782 ist listed (University of Chicago); for English edition see Goldsmiths’
10874 and Higgs 5488–90.
Climate and Human Development
43 BONSTETTEN, Charles-Victor de. L’Homme du Midi et
L’Homme du Nord, ou L’inXuence du Climat. Geneve, Paschoud,
Paris, 1824. £400
8vo, pp. [iv], xiii, [14]–234; contemporary roan-backed boards, spine
decorated in gilt, gilt-lettered spine label; joints worn and head of spine
chipped.
First edition of Bonstetten’s best-known work, his much discussed anthropological
study of the inXuence of climate on human development. Despite
his broad-brush assessments of the more rational northerners and impulsive
southerners, his typology of national characters and psychology of the people
remains of interest. Bonstetten (1745–1832), a Swiss writer and government
oYcial, was strongly inXuenced by Rousseau and Bonnet.
Cioranescu 12825.
Management of the Tongue
44 BORDELON, Laurent. La Langue. On Connoistra en quoy
consiste l’utilité de cet Ouvrage, par la lecture des Avertissemens
qui le precedent. Suivant la copie de Paris, Rotterdam, Elie Yvans,
1705. £450
8vo, pp. [xxii], 302 [vere 402]; title vignette and engraved tail pieces;
some light even browning, due to paper quality, paper fault to title,
resulting in three small holes; contemporary half sheep over sprinkled
boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt-lettered spine label, extremities
a little rubbed; duplicate from the Uppsala university library, with small
stamp and printed book label to front pastedown.
First Rotterdam edition of this amusing advice on the use of language, Wrst
published the same year in Paris. Bordelon identiWes the importance of language
for our social standing and position in the world. Under twenty-seven
separate headings such as the babbler, the swearer, the complimenter, the
man who praises others, the Xatterer, the promiser, the complainer etc.,
maxims and advice on modes of speaking are given, ranging from ‘Never ask
any man a question, unless you think he can answer it’, ‘Great talkers spoil
their best actions, by speaking too much of ‘em’, to platitudes on women:
‘There is no secret, which a woman will keep better, than that of her age’.