Malachy Postlethwayt

Born 5 May 1707,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a> Postlethwayt was elected a <a href="/facts/Fellow_of_the_Society_of_Antiquaries_of_London/kRxgPxzT">Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London</a> on 21 March 1734.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a> In 1743 he secured a position with the <a href="/facts/Royal_Africa_Company/tB0YRq3b">Royal Africa Company</a>, and elected to its Court of Assistants (governing board) 17 January 1744. He wrote in the company's defence over the next two years.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a>
Postlethwayt died suddenly on 13 September 1767 aged 60. He was buried in the <a href="/facts/Old_Street/tft9lG78">Old Street</a> churchyard, in <a href="/facts/Clerkenwell/sfbeJ15u">Clerkenwell</a>, north London.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a>

<h2 id="works">Works</h2>
Postlethwayt spent 20 years preparing The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, London, 1751 (3rd edit. London, 1766; 4th edit. London, 1774), a translation, with large additions, from the French work of <a href="/facts/Jacques_Savary_des_Br%25C3%25BBlons/3HnRzA4Y">Jacques Savary des Brûlons</a>. Postlethwayt drew on Savary's work and <a href="/facts/Richard_Cantillon/XqcGbKlf">Richard Cantillion</a> as well as other writers of the day, and clarified how economic theory applied to economic and political issues current then.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a>

Postlethwayt also published:

<ul><li>The African Trade the great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America, &c., 1745.</li>
<li>The National and Private Advantages of the African Trade considered, &c., 1746.</li>
<li>Britain's Commercial Interest Explained, Vol. I of his Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, 1747.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a></li>
<li>Considerations on the making of Bar Iron with Pitt or Sea Coal Fire, &c. In a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons, London, 1747.</li>
<li>Considerations on the Revival of the Royal-British Assiento, between his Catholic Majesty and the … South-Sea Company. With an … attempt to unite the African-Trade to that of the South-Sea Company, by Act of Parliament, London, 1749.</li>
<li>The Merchant's Public Counting House, or New Mercantile Institution, &c., London, 1750.</li>
<li>A Short State of the Progress of the French Trade and Navigation, &c., London, 1756.</li>
<li>Great Britain's True System. … To which is prefixed an Introduction relative to the Forming a New Plan of British Politicks with respect to our Foreign Affairs, &c., London, 1757.</li>
<li>Britain's Commercial Interest explained and improved, in a Series of Dissertations on several important Branches of her Trade and Police. … Also … the Advantages which would accrue … from an Union with Ireland, 2 vols., London, 1757; 2nd edit., ‘With … a clear View of the State of our Plantations in America,’ &c., London, 1759.</li>
<li>In Honour to the Administration. The importance of the African Expedition considered, &c., London, 1758.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a></li></ul>
Trinidadian historian <a href="/facts/Eric_Williams/Vve35PEU">Eric Williams</a> cited the works of Postlethwayt on the <a href="/facts/Atlantic_slave_trade/No8T5Jhl">slave trade</a> in his seminal work <a href="/facts/Capitalism_and_Slavery/d0eha0u6">Capitalism and Slavery</a> (1944).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a>
<a href="/facts/Edgar_Augustus_Jerome_Johnson/HzCAlt97">E.A.J. Johnson</a> devotes a chapter in his work <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/310507">Predecessors of Adam Smith: The Growth of British Economic Thought</a> (1937, reprint 1960) to Malachy Postlethwayt, Postlethwayt, the Publicist, p. 185-205.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a>

<h2 id="notes">Notes</h2>

<h2 id="external-links">External links</h2>
Attribution
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the <a href="/facts/Public_domain/YWKMDKw4">public domain</a>: "Postlethwayt, Malachy". <a href="/facts/Dictionary_of_National_Biography/QCm9t1Sn">Dictionary of National Biography</a>. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

<ul><li><a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28%28subject%3A%22Postlethwayt%2C%20Malachy%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Malachy%20Postlethwayt%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Postlethwayt%2C%20Malachy%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Malachy%20Postlethwayt%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Postlethwayt%2C%20M%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Malachy%20Postlethwayt%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Postlethwayt%2C%20Malachy%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Malachy%20Postlethwayt%22%29%20OR%20%28%221707-1767%22%20AND%20Postlethwayt%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29">Works by or about Malachy Postlethwayt</a> at the <a href="/facts/Internet_Archive/PHStU8Lo">Internet Archive</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">Adam Smith Review Volume 4 by Vivienne Brown p.196 <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=od29ibaLonYC&pg=PA196" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=od29ibaLonYC&pg=PA196</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">Rediker, Marcus (2007). The slave ship : a human history. New York: Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-01823-9. OCLC 124074808. <a href="978-0-670-01823-9" target="_blank">978-0-670-01823-9</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">Bennett, Robert J. (12 April 2011). "Malachy Postlethwayt 1707-67: Genealogy and Influence of an Early Economist and 'Spin-Doctor'" (PDF). Genealogists' Magazine. 1: 1–8. <a href="https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/bennett/malachypostlethwayt.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/bennett/malachypostlethwayt.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">"Postlethwayt, Malachy" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
 <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Postlethwayt,_Malachy" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Postlethwayt,_Malachy</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Christopher Leslie Brown, Moral Capital: foundations of British abolitionism (2006), p. 270;Google Books. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TaI--qgb1QcC&pg=PA270" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=TaI--qgb1QcC&pg=PA270</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">"Postlethwayt, Malachy" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
 <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Postlethwayt,_Malachy" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Postlethwayt,_Malachy</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">Bennett, Robert J. (12 April 2011). "Malachy Postlethwayt 1707-67: Genealogy and Influence of an Early Economist and 'Spin-Doctor'" (PDF). Genealogists' Magazine. 1: 1–8. <a href="https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/bennett/malachypostlethwayt.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/bennett/malachypostlethwayt.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">Emory R. Johnson, T. W. Van Metre, G. G. Huebner, D. S. Hanchett, History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States - Vol. 1, p.36–37 Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1915. <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/480602/history-of-domestic-and-foreign-commerce-of-the-united" target="_blank">https://www.questia.com/library/480602/history-of-domestic-and-foreign-commerce-of-the-united</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">"Postlethwayt, Malachy" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
 <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Postlethwayt,_Malachy" target="_blank">https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Postlethwayt,_Malachy</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">Groenewegen, Peter. "Postlethwayt, Malachy". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22599. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) <a href="/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography" target="_blank">/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography#Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">Johnson, E.A.J (1937). Predecessors of Adam Smith; the growth of British economic thought. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc. pp. 185–205. <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Malachy Postlethwayt open-in-new

Malachy Postlethwayt