De l'administration des chemins.

8vo. (4), 83, (1) pp. Contemporary stiff wrappers. Rare first separate edition of this early work on infrastructure financing and ways to advance road building without the use of bonded labour. Text slightly modified from the first publication in the Éphémérides V (1767). "Moyen de financer la construction des chemins et leur entretien, et moyen de supprimer les corvées en nature" (INED). - Dupont de Nemours (1739-1817), a student of Quesnay's, is the principal exponent of the physiocratic school, which saw the source of a nation's wealth not in its foreign trade (as did mercantilism), but in its land and agriculture. The economic theory is named after Dupont's magnum opus, "Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement", also published in 1767, and likewise with the place of publication cited as "Pekin" - a reference to the physiocrats' admiration for the meritocratic Chinese administration. - Contemporary handwritten ownership of the French civil servant Auger Lamaignère (secretary of the tiers état in 1789) on the title page. Slight paper flaw to final leaf of text, professionally repaired. Slightly browned throughout. A wide-margined copy. OCLC cites only four copies in libraries worldwide. - Higgs 4176. INED 1596. OCLC 490473422. Not in Humpert, Weller, Goldsmiths, or Kress.