BRIANSIAUX DE MILLEVILLE (Jean-Louis). Armemens en course à Dunkerque durant la guerre de 1756 jusqu'en 1762. Paris, Ballard, 1765. In-folio, green morocco, triple gilt fillet, coat of arms in the centre, spine decorated, inner lace, gilt edges (period binding). Unique edition of this extremely rare factum published at the expense of Jean-Louis Briansiaux de Milleville, Dunkirk's leading shipowner, who was also a banker. His fortune enabled him to arm at least eighteen privateers in Dunkirk during the Seven Years' War. That same year, he became overdrawn with "considerable sums and altered his credit in order to help the King with his own funds and facilitate the armament that was being carried out in Dunkirk". This debt, valued at 900,000 livres, was never repaid. Despite his ennoblement in 1765, the shipowner took the State to court before the Parliament of Paris for nearly thirty years, to no avail. This factum is one of the most accurate documents we have on the racing war at the time. A key part of Briansiaux de Milleville's defence against his creditors, the work presents all of his privateering operations, with a detailed financial balance sheet in the form of summary tables of his outfitting, carried out in Dunkirk but also in Calais, Dieppe and Le Havre, and sales of catches, from Brest to Norway. The work concludes with a list of the 111 shareholders affected by his bankruptcy, with their rank and place of residence. A copy bearing the arms of Aymar Jean de Nicolaÿ (1709-1785), Marquis de Goussainville, Seigneur d'Osny, with his armorial bookplate. He had served as mestre de camp in the Nicolaÿ-Dragons regiment before embarking on a parliamentary career and becoming, on the death of his brother Antoine-Nicolas in 1731, first president of the Chambre des comptes de Paris. - Later coat-of-arms stamp repeated on the white endpapers. Heavy spotting on the first cover, some spotting on the boards, small loss to the title page, spine faded, a few small stains scattered throughout the book.