Londres [Paris? no publisher], 1787.
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Hardcover. First edition. Octavo. xxiv, xlviii, 344pp. Text in French. Two or three minor pencil notations and underlining in text. Contemporary three-quarter leather dark brown calf and marbled boards. Spine and corners professionally restored; hinges strengthened with Japanese paper. An ex-library copy, with blind-stamp on title page and some old markings on dedication page; some small scattered library stamps at corners of text professionally removed. Inscribed by Thomas Jefferson to Sir John Sinclair on front free endpaper: "Th. Jefferson to Sr. John Sinclair." Brissot de Warville, a Girondist during the French Revolution, came to an untimely end by the guillotine in 1793. This important economic work by Claviere and Brissot de Warville advocated mutually beneficial commerce between France and the fledgling United States. Brissot sent a copy of the proof sheets to Jefferson a year before the book was published, and Jefferson made a few comments and corrections to the text. In a letter to him in 1786, Jefferson says "I have read with very great satisfaction the sheets of your work on the commerce of France & the United States which you were so good as to put into my hands.... were I to select any particular passages as giving me particular satisfaction, it would be those wherein you prove to the United States that they will be more virtuous, more free, & more happy, employed in agriculture, than as carriers or manufacturers. It is a truth, and a precious one for them, if they could be persuaded of it."
A copy of the published work was part of Jefferson's library [Sowerby #3609], and signs of his influence on the text are scattered throughout [Jefferson is specifically referred to in a footnote on p. 321 of this text.] Jefferson apparently had not had a chance to read the finished work, as his duties as Minister to France kept him very busy. He did, however, send a copy of the book to his friend Sinclair and James Madison in 1787. In a letter from Paris dated July 2, 1787, Jefferson writes: "I avail myself of the earliest moment possible after my return to thank you for the sketch of your last year’s journey which has come duly to hand. I send you through the medium of Count Sarsfeild a late publication on the connections between France and the United States which is said to be well written. I have not yet read it, and indeed I wonder how any body finds time to read any thing in Europe." [The editors of the Princeton edition of Jefferson's letters have identified this "late publication" as Claviere & Brissot de Warville's *De la France et des Etats-Unis*. See *The Papers of Thomas Jefferson,* (Princeton: 1955), volume 11, p.532.].
Sir John Sinclair and Jefferson were in constant correspondence over the years, often exchanging publications, seeds, and newly developed farm implements. Sinclair (1754-1835) was a Scottish agriculturalist, and first President of the Board of Agriculture in London. Jefferson himself became a Foreign Honorary Member of the London Board of Agriculture while Sinclair was President. [Sowerby #726 & 767]. In their correspondence on agriculture, Jefferson reiterated the sentiments he had expressed to Brissot: “I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two favors of June 21. & July 15, & of several parcels of the Agricultural reports. These now form a great mass of information on a subject of all in the world the most interesting to man; for none but the husbandman makes any thing for him to eat, & he who can double his food, as your exertions bid fair to do, deserves to rank among his benefactors, next to the creator.” [Letter dated March 23, 1798.] According to *ESTC T 109594*: "The imprint is false; possibly printed in Paris." *Howes* C464; *Kress* B1169; *Sabin* 13516. Provenance on request.
Item #392280
