his friend and colleague from the Il Caffè, in Beccaria's known work in on Crimes and Punishments. Beccaria had been largely inspired by Verri himself and defended by him. It is proposed in the present paper to revisit some of the basic tenets of Pietro Verri's political economy, with more in view than dwell on specific intuitions and theorems: namely, relate those to Verri's own—quite original—conception of the economy. 18th Century Philosopher Condillac apparently shared Verri's ideas on land reform. In the nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Say showed a favorable attitude towards Verri's treatment of productive and unproductive labor. Verri's books also reached to Voltaire and De Felice reports Voltaire's description of Verri's Meditazioni as ‘the truest, wisest and clearest’ book he had ever read on the subject of political economy, but no letter from Voltaire to Verri or any other similar reference to Verri's work can be found in the standard collected edition of Voltaire's works. However, Caspari mentions Voltaire's thanks to Verri for sending him a copy of the Meditazioni, dating it precisely at 19 March 1772 on the authority of Mauri. Adam Smith personal library included two copies (1771 and 1772) of Verri's Political economy. Adam Smith's reading Italian ability is well documented. The themes of a probable influence of Verri on Smith (the analysis is based on a comparison of Verri's Economia Politica with Smith's Wealth of Nations can be summarized as follows: A strong emphasis on the balance of consumption and production, which finds an echo in Smith's text. A Political economy of effective supply – that is, of cheapness-and abundance – based on a theory of price and on a criticism of the idea of money neutrality. A notion of a spontaneous order – that is, order as the result of human action but not of human design – which Verri discovers from an analysis of the perverse effects of the corn trade prohibitions. The canons for an effective tax system. In spite of favorable references to Verri by such authorities as McCulloch and Ingram, Verri's fortune as an economist was inferior to his merits. Later life and works In 1777, he began the Storia di Milano ("History of Milan", two volumes, 1783 and 1798), a notable example of Enlightenment historiography. The ecclesiastical reforms of Joseph II of Austria inspired him the Dialogo fra Pio VI e Giuseppe II a Vienna ("Dialogue between Pius VI