An Essay Upon Projects
An Essay Upon Projects (1697) was the first volume published by Daniel Defoe. It begins with a portrait of his time as a "Projecting Age" and subsequently illustrates plans for the economic and social improvement of England, including an early proposal for a national insurance scheme. Publication. The text was written in 1693 and published in 1697. The frontispiece state "printed by R. R. for Tho. Cockerill, at the Corner of Warwick-Lane, near Paternoster – Row. MDCXCVII". There is no known manuscript of the work. The essay was reprinted several times and reached a wide audience . The book was dedicated to Dalby Thomas Subsequent publications on the same theme. Many of its issues were later revised in a series of pamphlets which were published under the nom-de-plume of Andrew Moreton. They are titled "Every-body's Business, Is No-body's Business" (1725), "The Protestant Monastery" (1726), "Parochial Tyranny" (1727), "Augusta Triumphans" (1728) and "Second Thoughts are Best" (1729). Compared to these works, however, "An Essay Upon Projects" is more focused on moral criticism than being project-oriented.