ABSTRACT
The main facts of the peculiar reception history of Richard Cantillon's writings are quite well known. A modern fascination with the Essai was sparked by the publication of William Stanley Jevons's article 'Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy' in 1881. The author's opinion changed radically, however, when the fragments are compared from the Dictionary with the other English version of Cantillon's work published in the 1750s, namely, Philip Cantillon's The Analysis of Trade and Commerce of 1759. The form of presentation chosen allows a parallel reading of the three main versions that appeared in print in the 1750s, that is to say, the French Essai of 1755, the English fragments from Postlethwayt's Dictionary of 1751-55, and large parts of Philip Cantillon's Analysis of 1759. There are three known French manuscript versions of the Essai, two partial and one complete, which all date from before the publication of the first French print edition.
