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ALFRED MARSHALL — MONEY, CREDIT AND COMMERCELondon: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1923First Edition • Rare Original 10/- Dust Jacket • Final Book Published During Marshall’s Lifetime
A highly desirable first edition of Alfred Marshall’s Money, Credit and Commerce, published by Macmillan in 1923 and retaining the exceptionally scarce original publisher’s dust jacket, priced 10/- net.
Marshall was one of the foundational figures of modern economics and the dominant force in the development of the Cambridge school. His Principles of Economics helped establish much of the analytical language through which economics was taught and discussed during the twentieth century.
Published only a year before his death, Money, Credit and Commerce was the last substantial work issued during Marshall’s lifetime and represents the culmination of decades of thought on money, banking, credit, prices, international trade, and economic organization.
The survival of the original 1923 dust jacket makes this copy substantially more collectible than the much more frequently encountered copies in cloth alone.
THE RARE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET
The defining feature of this copy is the survival of the original Macmillan dust jacket, printed in black on tan paper and retaining the publisher’s printed price of:
10/- net
Original jackets on serious academic and economic works of this period are notoriously vulnerable, and jacketed first editions of Money, Credit and Commerce are distinctly uncommon in the rare-book market.
Specialist dealers have specifically emphasized the rarity of the jacket. Maggs Bros. has offered a professionally restored jacketed first edition at £750, while Bauman Rare Books has offered a superior jacketed copy at $7,500, demonstrating the considerable premium attached to surviving examples in the original wrapper.
The present jacket is unrestored as far as can be determined and survives substantially intact, though with significant wear.
Condition faults include:
• Chipping and loss at the head and foot of the spine
• Tears and splitting at folds and edges
• Creasing
• General toning and handling wear
• Edge loss
• Wear and small losses around corners
Despite these faults, the front panel remains highly presentable, the title and author remain clearly legible, and the jacket retains its period appearance and publisher’s price.
For a book of this type, the survival of the jacket is materially more important than cosmetic perfection.
A removable archival jacket protector would be an excellent means of preserving it in its present state.
AN IMPORTANT LATE WORK BY ALFRED MARSHALL
Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) was one of the most influential economists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
His work helped formalize concepts including:
• Supply and demand analysis
• Marginal utility
• Price elasticity
• Consumer surplus
• Market equilibrium
• Cost and production theory
His Principles of Economics, first published in 1890, became one of the dominant economics textbooks of its era and helped establish economics as an independent academic discipline.
Money, Credit and Commerce was the third volume in Marshall’s projected larger treatment of economic life, following Principles of Economics and Industry and Trade. A projected fourth volume was never completed before Marshall’s death in 1924. Maggs describes the book as the final work of this planned sequence to appear during his lifetime.
The volume contains Marshall’s extended treatment of:
• Money and monetary systems
• Credit
• Banking
• Gold and silver standards
• Prices
• International commerce
• Foreign trade
• Economic organization
John Maynard Keynes later noted the value of the book for bringing together material and ideas otherwise scattered through Marshall’s career. Bauman likewise describes it as an important component of Marshall’s mature economic thought.
CONTEMPORARY 1923 MILITARY PROVENANCE
The front free endpaper bears a contemporary ink inscription:
“W. O. Cobbett
4th/7th Dragoon Guards
7.8.23”
The inscription is dated 7 August 1923, the year of publication.
The 4th/7th Dragoon Guards had only recently been created through the 1922 amalgamation of the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and 7th Dragoon Guards, placing the inscription in the earliest period of the newly constituted regiment. The National Archives preserves records for the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and its later history as the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards.
I have not conclusively identified W. O. Cobbett, so I would not make a stronger attribution without further evidence.
The inscription nevertheless gives the copy attractive, firmly dated first-year provenance.
CONDITION
Book: Very Good.
Dust jacket: Fair to Good-minus; rare and substantially surviving.
The original dark blue cloth is well preserved beneath the jacket.
The boards remain straight and attractive.
The gilt lettering and ruling to the spine remain bright.
Binding is firm and sound.
Contents are generally clean, with:
• Some foxing to the opening leaves and endpapers
• Mild age toning
• Contemporary 1923 ownership inscription
• Faint old pencil bookseller’s notations
The original dust jacket shows substantial wear, including:
• Chips and losses at spine ends
• Tears and splitting
• Edge wear
• Creasing
• Toning
• Fold wear
• General handling wear
Nevertheless, the jacket remains substantially present, retains the printed 10/- net price, and remains the major distinguishing feature of the copy.
No restoration is known or apparent.
Please examine all photographs carefully for the exact condition and extent of jacket loss.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
Author: Alfred Marshall
Title: Money Credit and Commerce
Publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited
Place: London
Date: 1923
Edition: First Edition
Pagination: xv, [1], 369, [3] pages
Binding: Original dark blue cloth
Dust Jacket: Original printed publisher’s jacket
Price on Jacket: 10/- net
Provenance: W. O. Cobbett, 4th/7th Dragoon Guards, dated 7 August 1923
Language: English
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
A particularly desirable jacketed first edition of Alfred Marshall’s final lifetime publication, important both as a major work in the history of economic thought and as a scarce survivor in its fragile original 1923 dust jacket.
