Benner's Prophecies of Future Ups and Downs in Prices. What Years to Make Money on Pig-Iron, Hogs, Corn, and Provisions.

Second edition. Small 8vo. 12, 13a-13c, [1, blank], [13]-131, [1] pp. Original green cloth stamped in gilt, browned coated endpapers (just a hint of faint marking to outer leaves; tips of spine and corners only slightly rubbed, surface wear to front cover, notwithstanding a very good copy). Cincinnati, Robert Clarke and Co.

One of the earliest works on market cycles, originally published in 1876. 'Samuel Benner, a prosperous hog farmer was wiped out by the 1873 panic and a cholera epidemic. In retirement he set about discovering an underlying basis to fluctuations in the economy, using weather patterns and planetary movements to establish various price cycles for hogs, pig iron, corn, etc. A fervent Christian, he believed these had been ordained by God. In his 'cast iron rule' Benner states that 'one extreme invariably follows another, as can be witnessed in all the operations of nature.' This connection to the natural world later proved of interest to market theorists and particularly followers of the Elliott Wave Theory, as Benner’s cycles have been linked to Fibonacci numbers and to the Krondatieff cycle' (Dennistoun).

Dennistoun, 707.

Stock Code: 254709