Postlethwayt, Malachy
Malachy Postlethwayt (c. 1707 - 1767) was a British economist and commercial expert famous for his publication of the commercial dictionary titled The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce in 1751. The dictionary was a translation and adaptation of the Dictionnaire économique of the French Inspector General of the Manufactures for the King, Jacques Savary des Brûlons. Malachy claims to have spent nearly 20 years adapting and researching his important dictionary, which attained a popular following. The second edition of the Dictionary issued in 1752, was updated with a series of fine maps based upon D'Anville's work, but updated by Postlethwayt to reflect his political and social views. Politically Postlethwayt was extremely conservative and highly patriotic though his views more often than not took the form of rants against the social and political enemies of the British Empire. In the mid-1740s Postlethwayt lobbied for the Royal Africa Company and was known for his pro-slavery advocacy. His belief that the slave trade had a place in the larger "political arithmetic" of empire, promoted through his many popular books and other publications, in time became the party line for the ruling class. Despite his misguided feelings about the Africa slave trade, Postlethwayt was an influential and thoughtful economist whose ideas influenced Adam Smith, Samuel von Pufendorf, Alexander Hamilton, and others. Postlethwayt also commonly spelled his name as Postlethawyte and Postlethwait.
State-of-the-art 18th Century Cartography.
Africa, Performed by the Sr. D'Anville under the Patronage of the Duke of Orleans.
$1,000.00
Acquire
- Digital Map Information
- Suitable for large format printing
- Full resolution TIFF file
- ICC color profile embedded
- Delivered instantly via download link
This large and evocative four-sheet 1755 wall map of Africa captures a transitional period in European understanding of African geography. It was bound, in its four separate sheets, in the second volume of Malachy Postlethwayte's The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce. The map is the work of Solomon Boulton, who drafted the map as a largely faithful translation of the illustrious French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville's 1749 map of the continent. D'Anville was an extremely careful mapmaker, meticulous in detail and scrupulous in the data presented in his work, and for the most part Boulton preserves these qualities while translating the original text and adding an attractive rococo cartouche. (more details)