Malachy Postlethwayt

Malachy Postlethwayt (1707? – 1767) was a British commercial expert famous for his publication of the commercial dictionary titled The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce in 1757. The dictionary was a translation and adaptation of the Dictionnaire universel du commerce of the French Inspector General of the Manufactures for the King, Jacques Savary des Brûlons.

Born about 1707, Postlethwayt was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 21 March 1734. From some time in the 1730s he worked for the Royal Africa Company, and wrote in its defence.

He died suddenly, on 13 September 1767, and was buried in Old Street churchyard, Clerkenwell.

He devoted twenty years to the preparation of ‘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 Jacques Savary des Bruslons. Postlethwayt collected information, freely plagiarising other writers, but presented his results haphazardly.

Postlethwayt also published:

Eric Williams cited the work of Postlethwayt on the slave trade in his Capitalism and Slavery (1944).

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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