D'AVENANT, CHARLES, a writer on politics, political ecouornY, and finance, was born in 1656, nut was the eldest sou of Sir William DAvenaat, the poet. He studied at Balleel College, Oxford, and first made himself kaowu by a dramatic piece, entitled 'Circe, a Tragedy,' to which Dryden wrote a prologue and Lord Rochester an epilogue, and which was brought out in 1675, but not printed till 1677. it was of an operatic character, like most of his father's productions in the same line, and of very little merit: as indeed Dryden iutimatee, with slight disguise, in his prologue. D'Avenant however did not pursue poetry, but applied himself to the study of the civil law ; and he was some years after this made a Doctor of Laws by the University of Cambridge. Of his public employment., the first that is recorded is his apr ointment in 1083 ea one of the six commissioners to whom the superintendence of the Excise was delegated at this time, on that part of the revenue which had for many years been let out to farm, coming again into the hands of the crown. In 1685 he was appointed Inspector of Plays, conjointly with the Master of the Revels; and that year also be was returned to parliament as one of the members for St. Ives. He was afterwards returned for Bedwin in 1693, and again in 1700; and on the 3rd of June, 1703, he was appointed Inspector general of Exports and Imports, being the second person who had held that office, the first having been William Culliford, originally a custom-house officer in Ireland, who was appointed in 1696, and was now raised to be a commissioner of the customs. This office D'Avenant retained till his death, 14th November 1714.
D'Avenant's publications on commerce, finance, and politics range over a period of about eighteen years. We will enumerate the more remarkable of them. An Essay upon Ways and Means of Supplying the War,' 1695. This tract immediately gained him considerable reputation for an acquaintance with the subject of the public finances; and for some years all his subs. quent publications which he acknow ledged were designated on the title-page as being by the author of the 'Essay on Weyer and Means;' but he ie believed to have been the author of several pieces upon which no such intimation appears. 'Discourses on the Public Revenues, and of the Trade of England,' Part L 1698; and Part II. containing the Discourses 'which more immediately treat of the Foreign Trade of this Kingdom,' also 1693. To the first part is annexed a translation of Xenophon's 'Discourse on the Revenue of Athens,' by Walter Moyle, which is also printed in Moyle's collected works. The subjects discussed in the ' Discourses' are the use of political arithmetic, credit and the means of restoring it, the management of the king's revenues, the public debts, the general nature of foreign trade, the best way of protecting it tbe plantation trade, and the trade with the East Indies. A reply was made to some things in the first part of this work, in 'Remarks upon some wrong computations and conclusions contained in a late tract entitled Discourses, &c.; in a letter to Mr. D. S.' 1698. 'A Discourse
upon Grants end Itesumptions; 1700. This was written to recommend that certain late grants of crown lands, eze., should be resumed ; and it was answered the following year in an elaborate treatise entitled 'Jug Regium; or, the King's right to grant forfeitures, and other revenues of the crown, fully set forth,' &c. 'Essay upon the Balance of Power; the Right of Making War, Peace, and Alliances; Universal Monarchy,' 1701. This was another attack upon the government of King William, and was answered the same year in Animadversions on a late factious book entitled Eaeaye,' &c. It was also formally censured by the Upper House of Convocation for a passage in which the author had declared that be could point out several persona whom nothing had recommended to places of the highest trust, and often to rich beneficea and dignities, but the open enmity which they had, almost from their cradles, professed to the divinity of Christ. ' Eseays upon Peace at home and War abroad,' in two Parts, 1704. To this piece he put his name ; and, being now in office, he of course supports the existiog government. He still however attached himself to the Tory party ; and In 1710, in a work extending to two 8vo volumes, entitled ' New Dialogues upon the Present Posture of Affairs, by the author of the Essay on Ways and Means,' he renewed an attack upon their oppo nents, which be is believed to have commenced many years before in an anonymous publication which appeared, in two anceeseive parts, in 1701 and 1702, under the title of ' The True Picture of a Modern Whig.' his last performances were 'Reflections upon the Consti tution and Management of the Trade to Africa' (anonymous), in three parts, fel. 1709; and two 'Reports to the Commissioners for putting in execution the Act for examining the Public Accounta of the Kingdom,' 8vo, 1712. A selection of the political and commercial works of Dr. D'Avenant was published in 1771, in 5 vols. 8vo, by Sir Charles Whitworth, M.P., afterwards Earl Whitworth.
D'Avenant's writings are generally of some value for the informa tion contained in them, and on some points he saw rather farther than the generality of his contemporaries; but be is a heavy writer, and was evidently (notwithstanding his poetical descent) a dull man, and as such (though the common notion was different) he was by no means a person to be trusted even in the handling and statement of facts. His notions upon the principles of trade and political economy also were very imperfectly systematised, and in Pomo respects extremely immature ; upon no 0130 question perhaps is ho more than partially right. He is as much behind his contemporary Sir Dudley North, for example, In the conclusions to which he had come, as if they had been separated by a century.
(Biographia Britannica, 2nd edit.; Craik, history of British Commerce, ii. 85, &c.; M'Cullocb, Literature of Political Economy, pp. 351, 352.)