MILL, John Stuart "Principles of Political Economy" [Longmans, Green, 1872] Eton

MILL, John Stuart. Principles of Political Economy With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy.

London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1872. People’s Edition. 7.5" x 5.25", xx + 591pp. Contemporary full tree calf, boards paneled in gilt with decorative corner tools, spine richly gilt in compartments with red morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, marbled edges. Prize bookplate to front pastedown printed for Eton College, inscribed in ink to Jacobus J. Hornby, Honoris Causa, dated 1872. Binding rubbed and worn at joints and some loss to spine ends, but holding firm. Leather scuffed with small losses, text clean with occasional light toning. Very Good.

First published in 1848, Principles of Political Economy is John Stuart Mill’s most influential economic work and one of the foundational texts of nineteenth-century liberal political thought. In it, Mill synthesizes classical economics with moral philosophy, addressing labor, capital, production, and distribution while explicitly engaging questions of social justice, education, and governance. The “People’s Edition” reflects the period’s expanding commitment to making serious economic and philosophical works accessible to a broader reading public.

This copy is additionally distinguished by its Eton College prize binding and presentation inscription, firmly situating it within the elite British educational system that shaped generations of administrators, economists, and statesmen. Prize copies of Mill’s works are uncommon survivors, and they provide tangible evidence of how political economy was taught, rewarded, and circulated in late Victorian England. Despite its wear, this example remains a solid and historically resonant copy of one of the central texts of modern economic thought.