‎FROUMENTEAU, N.‎
‎Le secret des finances de France, descouvert, et départi en trois livres ..... & maintenant publié, pour ouvrir les moyens légitimes & nécessaires de payer les dettes du Roy, décharger ses sujets des subsides imposez depuis trente un ans, & recouvrer tous les deniers (sic) prins à sa Majesté.‎

‎No place, 1581. 3 parts in 1 volume. (56), 152 pp.; (2), 3-472 pp. (456 pp.; pp. 17-32 omitted in numbering but text complete); (8), 435 (misnumbered 439) pp. 8vo. 18th-century calf, spine gilt with gilt lettering, gilt triple fillets on both sides, very lightly rubbed, joints tender, tiny repair to foot of spine. Kress 146; INED 1932; Einaudi 5204; Mattioli 1340; not in Goldsmiths; Haag, La France protestante (2e éd.) vi, pp. 747 ff.; BM STC French 189; Adams F-1084. Augmented edition of Le secret des thrésors de France, also published in 1581, and hence the best edition of this valuable statistical analysis of public finances of the years 1550-1580. There are at least three different issues of the book: there are copies with 'Le' from the title printed in Italics and with an 'Epitre' at the beginning of the second book of either 16 or 30 pages, which copies are ordinarely found, and their are copies with 'Le' printed in Roman type and with the 'Epitre' in 16 pages, the scarcer copies. In all copies the 'Epitre' contains the same text, the difference being whether or not the text is printed in larger or smaller type. The present copy is with 'Le' printed in Roman type. Includes a statistical analysis of public finances of the years 1550-1580 and criticizes the 'régime fiscal' of the period. The author herewith anticipates writers as Boisguilbert, Vauban and Boulainvilliers, as well as the physiocrats. Froumenteau, the pseudonym of a protestant, gives also statistics on population and the damage caused by the wars of religion. Sometimes attributed to Barnaud. - The preface of part 2 is here printed in a small type, hence the preface has fewer pages than in other issues: to keep pace with the pagination of the rest of the volume, the numbering jumps from 16 to 33. - Somewhat browned throughout. ‎

Reference : 17640

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