The Budget of National Resources.

KEYNES, John Maynard.

Published by Cambridge: by W. Lewis, at the University Press, Printed for private circulation only, 31 March, 1940

About this Item

First edition, with the ownership signature of Otto Clarke, of this rare privately printed pamphlet, issued in advance of the budget due on 23 April and keeping up the pressure after How to Pay for the War, published a month earlier. Keynes writes "to explain the paradox that, so far, a large increase in Government expenditure has been accomplished with only a small increase in output and a moderate rise in prices. The object. is to show that a further increase in the rate of Government expenditure is likely to produce consequences of a different order". Given the ephemeral nature and flimsy format of this consultation paper, it is perhaps not surprising that surviving copies are so few. No copy appears in auction records, and the only copy traced in institutional holdings worldwide is that at the Bodleian, Oxford. Sir Richard William Barnes ("Otto") Clarke (1910-1975) was a Cambridge-educated mathematician and economist and Keynes's eventual heir at the Treasury. Prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, he worked as a journalist at the Financial News, later amalgamated with the Financial Times, where he devised the ordinary share index - still, as the FT index, the principal measure of its kind. From 1939, he moved successively through the ministries of information, economic warfare, supply, and production, and spent a vital year (1942-3) in Washington in the combined production and resources board. In 1945, he joined the Treasury, where he enjoyed a distinguished career for the next 21 years: he has been called "The Treasury's best brain after Keynes's death in 1946". He was the author of numerous published works, including The Economic Effort of War (1940). Not in Moggridge. Small quarto pamphlet, 8 pp. Stitched as issued. Custom brown cloth folding case. Creased vertically and horizontally where folded, slightly dust-soiled at head of last leaf verso and with short closed tear at fold, still a very good copy in original condition.

Seller Inventory # 153475

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Budget of National Resources.
• Publisher: Cambridge: by W. Lewis, at the University Press, Printed for private circulation only, 31 March, 1940
• Edition: 1st Edition