The books written by Josiah Child among others, the theme was quite   
common at the time in the English economic literature. The genre   
persisted in 18th century not only in England but also in France (the   
writings of the so-called Gournay circle in the mid-eighteenth century).  
On the latter group of authors/writings and the genre you mentioned, I   
have a paper forthcoming (May 2007) in: Margaret Schabas and Carl   
Wennerlind (eds), Hume's political Economy, Routledge.  
On 17th century English economic literature, you may begin with the   
work of Lars Magnusson but there is a large collection of recent works   
which addresses the topic.  
Best,  
  
Loic Charles