Catalogue Number 12 - Susanne Schulz-Falster

lined what was to be Smith’s concept of the extent of the market as a major
factor in economic growth. Adam Smith was aware of his writings, and his
Meditazioni were to be found in Adam Smith’s library (Bonar, p. 117).
Verri rejected the physiocratic doctrine of the ‘sterility’ of manufactures.
He emphasised supply and demand and combined it with references to utility
in the context of value and has therefore been called a forerunner of marginal
economics. Among other subjects treated he devoted much attention
to taxation, anticipating the importance which Italian economists were in
the following century to attach to the subject.
Verri’s Meditazioni were very highly regarded when they were Wrst published,
six Italian editions came out within the Wrst two years of publication,
and it was immediately translated. There were four French editions, two in
German, at least one, perhaps two in Dutch, and a partial Russian edition
(Carpenter, XXV).
Apparently Verri’s Meditazioni was Wrst issued without a printed title,
just with a half title. Here the printed title is inserted between half-title and
contents leaf, but clearly of the Wrst printing. Verri himself notes that the
title and the contents page were printed by Coltellini in January 1771, but
the rest of the book was not complete until two months later. This explains
why the contents page does not give the page numbers of the individual
chapters. Furthermore, in his article on the fortunes of the Meditazioni (‘Le
Meditazioni sulla economia politica di Pietro Verri, Edizioni, echi e
discussioni’, in Rivista storica italiana, vol XCI, 3, (1978), pp. 530–94)
Venturi mentiones that the Wrst French review of the work describes it as
without author or imprint.
Carpenter XXV/1; Einaudi 5878; Higgs 5166; Kress 6827 and Goldsmiths’
10722; McCulloch, p. 26–27; for a full discussion of Verri’s work see New
Palgrave, Schumpeter, p. 178; and Hutchison, p. 302–306.
Accounting for Prisons
88 [VILAIN XIIII, Jean-Jacques-Philippe, vicomte.] Mémoire sur
les Moyens de Corriger le Malfaiteurs et Fainéans a leur propre
Avantage et de les Rendre utiles à l’État, propose à l’Assemblée des
Députés par le Vicomte Vilain XIIII & présenté aux Corps &
Administrations des Etats de Flandres au mois de Janvier 1775.
Ghent, Pierre de Goesin, [1775]. £2800
Large 4to, pp. [viii] including initial blank, 268, with four double-page
engraved plates mounted on guards and bound after the prelims; text
printed throughout within decorative baroque border; numerous tables
in the text; early nineteenth-century half sheep over marbled boards,
spine ruled in gilt, gilt-lettered spine label; upper joint strengthened,
head and tail of spine chipped; printed on thick paper; a Wne, widemargined
copy.
First edition, very uncommon, of Viscount Vilain XIIII’s detailed proposals
for a reform of the prison system, combined with improvements in their
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue twelve
Wnancial administration and accounting systems. Vilain (1712–1777), had
made initial suggestions in 1771, as a result of which the citadel of the Belgian
city of Ghent was transformed into an enlightened detention centre,
combining prison, work-house, and house of correction. His system combined
isolation by night with communal work during the day. The inmates
were divided up according to the type and severity of their crimes. He also
made some innovative proposals on the commutation of sentences. He favoured
the exercise of the pardoning power with regulation by law of the
conditions under which the prison administrators were to recommend the
pardon. This plan later found application in the United States in Tennessee
Act of 1836.
The work, however, is not just important in the Weld of prison reform,
but even more so in its innovative Wnancial organisation. Vilain gives a precise
introduction to double-entry book-keeping for use in public accounts,
with the speciWc provision that the prison governor could at all times easily
assess the proWtability of the institution. Accounting practices are applied to
all aspects of the institution, not just the Wnancial ones. He gives detailed
examples of day-book, journal, and end of year accounts.
In the second half the textile workshops run by the prison are described,
again with clear regulations as to their organisation and accounting. Stringent
cost beneWt calculations are applied, before they can be introduced. A