In print: A Plan of the English Commerce (New Edition) by Daniel Defoe

A new edition of the hard to get economic tract on the development of British manufacturing by the noted author of  Robinson Crusoe.

Interest in this little known gem has been rekindled following attention drawn to it by Cambridge University economist Ha-Joon Chang's influential book Bad Samaritans (2008, Bloomsbury Publishing). In an account that predates and runs contrary to conventional views of British economic development, Defoe recounts how the state played a central role in early industrialization.