Price of Corn and Wages of Labour, with Observations upon Dr. Smith's, Mr. Ricardo's, and Mr. Malthus's Doctrines upon those Subjects;

London: John Hatchard and Son, , 1826. First edition of West's second work on economics, "a notable book if only because it was virtually the first work to attack the wages fund doctrine embedded in the writings of Adam Smith and Ricardo" (Mark Blaug in The New Palgrave). West's earlier work of 1815, Essay on the Application of Capital to Land, with Observations Shewing the Impolicy of any Great Restriction of the Importation of Corn, was notable for having stated the theory of differential rent based on the principle of diminishing returns just before Ricardo did so in his Essay on the Influence of a low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock, published 11 days later. Most probably from the library of George Hay, eighth marquess of Tweeddale (1787-1876) who, after an extensive military career, "settled at Yester House, near Gifford, on his family estates in East Lothian, and in 1824, he was appointed lord lieutenant of the county, where he spent the next eighteen years in the improvement of his estates, acting as a conscientious landed proprietor and country magnate" (ODNB). Octavo. Complete with the half-title and final advertisement leaf; large folding frontispiece lithographed chart of the yearly average price of wheat by the harvest year from 1774 to 1821. Original boards, uncut. Housed in a black cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Ownership "Tweedale" and armorial bookplate to front pastedown. Joints and extremitites lightly rubbed, pencil marginalia and other annotations loosely inserted; a very good copy. Einaudi 6025; Goldsmiths' 24816; McCulloch, p. 78; Sraffa 6291.