Beschreibung:

Report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, on the Subject of Manufactures. Presented to the House of Representatives, December 5, 1791.
Philadelphia]: Childs and Swaine, [1791]. Folio. Disbound. Condition: Foxing, lacking the terminal blank, some scattered early ink marginalia and spelling corrections. an americana landmark. the extremely rare first edition of “the magna carta of industrial america.” Hamilton's third, and most important, report as the first Secretary of the Treasury marks the start of America's movement away from an agrarian-based society and is one of the most significant products of the first Congress. The report describes the state of manufacturing in America and provides a roadmap for how a strong Federal government can implement duties, bounties and tariffs to raise revenue while encouraging manufacturing. Although the report was initially tabled and Hamilton's proposals never enacted as formal legislation, the principles of his attack on a laissez faire, free trade economy were decades ahead of his time. “As the successive reports of the Secretary were studied, the scale of his idea gradually became evident. He was not merely planning a fiscal system, but doing it in such a way as to strengthen the central government and develop the resources of the country, to stimulate trade and capitalistic enterprises, and to bring about a more symmetrical balance between agriculture and industry” ( DAB ). Only the tattered Forbes copy has appeared at auction in recent years. Evans 23914; Howes H123.