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40. Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.

An essay upon projects (London : Printed by R. R. for Tho. Cockerill ..., 1697)

This was one of Defoe’s earliest works. It contains many of the ideas current in the city in the 1690s. The plans are mainly economic, referring to proposals for banks, insurance schemes and pensions for the poor. The book begins,

Necessity, which is allowed to be the Mother of Invention, has so violently agitated the wits of men at this time that it seems not at all improper, by way of distinction, to call it, The Projecting Age. (p. 1)

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