Essai sur le commerce

by Richard Cantillon

"Essai sur le commerce" by Richard Cantillon is an economic treatise written around 1730 and published posthumously in 1755. This groundbreaking work, considered by William Stanley Jevons as the "predecessor of political economy," introduces the Cantillon Effect—the theory that monetary expansion creates unequal economic impacts, benefiting those who first access newly created money while disadvantaging the general population. The book analyzes major elements of eighteenth-century economics, incorporating physiocratic, mercantilist, classical, and other economic perspectives.