‎(LE TROSNE, G.F.)‎
‎Mémoire sur les vagabonds et sur les mendiants.‎

‎A Soissons, et se trouve à Paris, Chez P.G. Simon, 1764. With woodcut device on title. (2), 76 pp. 8vo. Modern marbled boards, red label with gilt lettering (Laurenchet). Kress 6201; Einaudi 3362; Higgs 3306; Mattioli 1971; INED 2877 (edition 1765); Weulersse, i, xxvii; not in Goldsmiths; Granier, Bibliographie Charitable, 1330; not in Dada. Very rare first edition. Guillaume François Le Trosne (1728-1780) joined the physiocrats in 1764, contributing articles to their journals, and writing works defending their ideas. 'He became one of the most lucid exponents of the physiocratic doctrine; his views express most clearly the evolution of the school. At first an enthusiastic, inflexible adept of the abstract physiocratic system, he nevertheless evidenced a preference for practical questions, as reflected in his La liberté du commerce des grains, toujours utile et jamais nuisible (Paris, 1765).In this work, Le Trosne condemns the vagabond as a parasite on, and an enemy of, society. 'Only in politics did he remain absolutely faithful to absolutism ..... and hostile to democracy, that 'bizarre and monstrous' government which he doubtless pictured in the form of the violent popular demonstrations against the dealer in wheat or as personified by the vagabonds who had set fire to one of the farms of the magistrate' (ESS). Discusses the current situation in France, measures, legal and otherwise, taken to combat or remedy the situation, discusses the distinction to be made between vagabonds and beggars, and discusses possible solutions, one of which is condamning vagabonds to the galleys, and ends with a project for beggars and ways to combat mendicity. 'Ils provoquent le renchérissement de la main-d'oeuvre, car leur oisiveté diminue le nombre des travailleurs; ils favorisent encore l'augmentation des tailles' (INED: They cause the increase of cost of manpower, of labour, as their idleness reduces the number of workers; they rather favor the increase of the "tailles" (a tax)" (our translation)). ‎

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