Malachy Postlethwayt

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.

He was a lobbyist for the Royal African Company and asserted that slave trade was central to British Empire's economic interests.

[4] In 1743 he secured a position with the Royal Africa Company, and elected to its Court of Assistants (governing board) 17 January 1744.

[4] Postlethwayt spent 20 years preparing The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, London, 1751 (3rd edit.

London, 1774), a translation, with large additions, from the French work of Jacques Savary des Bruslons.