GRASWINCKEL, Dirck
(1600-1666)
Placcaten, ordonnantien ende reglementen, op 't stuck vande lijf-tocht, sulcx als de selve
van outs tot herwaerts toe op alle voorvallen van hongers-noot en dieren-tijdt beraemt zijn ende
ghedaen publiceeren; ten meerendeels door de ... Staten van Hollant ende West-Frieslant. By een
vergadert ende met verscheyden ghelijck-formighe ordonnantien ende reglementen, met verdere
betrachtingen bevesticht.
Tot Leyden, ter Druckerije van de Elseviers 1651.
2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. [XII],203,175,[1]p. Contemp. vellum. Fine copy.
€ 2250
First (only) edition. A treatise on the economics of the corn trade
that ranks among the best of the scientific achievements of the Dutch in the seventeenth century.
The first part is a Compilation of regulations concerning foodstuffs, all the ordinances
concerning the corn trade in the Netherlands from 1501 till 1634. They are printed in Dutch and Latin
in double columns, with a Dutch half-title Reglementen op 't stuck van kooren ende greynen.
The second part constitutes Graswinckel's analysis of the processes involved. It is written in
Dutch, with some printed annotations in Latin in the outer margins, and has a half-title
Aenmerckinghen ende betrachtinghen, op de placcaten, ordonnantien, ende reglementen, &c. over 't
stuck van kooren ende greynen ... (Remarks and considerations on the regulations concerning
corn and grains).
The author was one of the most prominent lawyers of his time and a strong supporter of
republican government. He had assisted Grotius in Paris and acquired fame on his own account with
works on public and international law. With the present treatise on the economy of the corn trade
Graswinckel also established his name as an economist 'with a remarkable grasp of the subject'.
Graswinckel refutes many of the mercantilist views of his time. He strongly defends the interests of the
land owners and the agricultural population and argues for the free trade in corn, only in times of
national destitution restrictions may be imposed. Schumpeter writes that many historians will place
him (and his contemporary Pieter de la Court) 'above their English contemporaries on account of their
liberal views on national and international trade ... government interference, medieval corporations and
so on'. Schumpeter also notes that Graswinckel, though his views on the harm done by prohibiting the
exportation of grains were not new in 1651, yet he had 'a keener sense of the price mechanism
involved, especially of the function of forestalling'.
Our copy with a Dutch title-leaf, other copies have a Latin title-leaf Statutorum circa
annonam syllabus ..., but the contents is identical.
*Goldsmiths'-Kress 1201. Dekkers p.66,7. Willems 694 (with Dutch title) and 695 (with Latin
title). Liesker p.61 and 262. Schumpeter p.197 and 368. Van Rees I,p.326. Laspeyres p.205 and nr 178.
Palgrave II,p.256.