Pinto, Isaac de. Reponse de Mr. J. De Pinto, Aux Observations d'un Homme Impartial

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Pierre-Frederic Gosee

The Hague

1776

Szajkowski 1585

Isaac de Pinto (1717-87), a native of Bordeaux, resided most of his life in Holland and was one of the pioneers in the new field of economic theory - he also engaged in Jewish apologetics, famously debating Voltaire on the subject. De Pinto expresses here his criticism of the America Revolution. He feared that once independent, the American Colonies would take control of other European colonial possessions in the Americas and thereby control the flow of bullion. Most of all, he considered the American Revolution a revolt against the basic political order. Pinto's Jewish convictions likely barred him from adopting the traditional argument of his fellow Tories, i.e., that the monarchy represented God's earthly agency. De Pinto was “the most important Jewish literary figure who wrote in French before the revolution . . . he left a considerable body of work and, at least as an economist, he was far ahead of his time.” See A. Hertzberg, The French Enlightenment and the Jews (1968) pp. 142-3 and150-2. See also J. L. Cardoso and A. de Vasconcelos-Nogueira, Isaac de Pinto: An Enlightened Economist and Financier. For other writings by de Pinto offered at auction, see Kestenbaum & Company Sale XIV (November, 2001), Lot 18