Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Giovanni Rinaldo, Count of Carli
and economics, was born at Capo d'Istria, in 1720. He was early distinguished for the extent and variety of his acquirements, and at the age of twenty-four was ap pointed by the senate of Venice to the newly-established professorship of astronomy and navigation in the University of Padua, and intrusted with the superintendence of the Venetian marine. After filling these offices for seven years with great credit, he resigned them, in order to devote himself to the study of antiquities and political economy. His principal economic works are his Delle Alonete, e della Instituzione delle Zecche d Italia ; his Ragionamento sopra i Bilanci economid delle Nazioni (1759), in which he main tained that what is termed the balance of trade between two nations is no criterion of the prosperity of either, since both may be gainers by their reciprocal transactions ; and his Sul libei-o Commercio dei Grani (1771), in which he argues that free trade in corn is not always advisable.
Count Carli s merits were appreciated by Leopold of Tuscany, afterwards emperor, who, in 1765, placed him at the head of the council of public economy, and of the board of public instruction. In 1769 he became privy councillor, in 1771 president of the new council of finances. The duties of these offices he continued to discharge with ability for several years; but for some time before his death, which took place in February 1795, he was relieved from their toils,—retaining, however, their emoluments, as a reward for his important services. It was during the leisure thus afforded that he completed and published his very valuable Antichità Italiche, in which the literature and arts of his country are ably discussed. Besides the above, he published many works on antiquarian, economic, and other subjects, including L' Uomo Libero, in confutation of Rousseau's Contract Social; an attack upon the Abbé Tartarotti's assertion of the existence of magicians; Observazione sulla musica antica e moderna; and several poems.