Bentham, Jeremy

Bentham, Jeremy. Works. Edited by John Bowring. 1838-1843. Edinburgh: Tait. 11 vols.

"A considerable amount of Bentham is still worthy of study. He may be considered as the philosophic founder of modern British democracy. He held that the State exists to promote the individual happiness of the citizens who compose it and that ministers are the servants of the electors. For our purposes, the more important works are: (1) A Fragment on Government (1776), (2) Defense of Usury (1787), (3) An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789). As a Utilitarian, an Individualist, and a reformer of laws and institutions, he deserves more attention than he now receives. Bentham is, like Locke, influential, but known chiefly through the work of his pupils and disciples." - PI.

Bentham, Jeremy, Defense of Usury. 1787. Many editions. 232pp.

Jeremy Bentham whose reputation has hitherto been that of a moralist, a founder of Utilitarianism, a logician, a great political and legal philosopher and reformer, was also, it is now being discovered, an outstanding economist. Until very recent years, by far the greater part of Bentham's economic work was completely unknown - locked up in chaotic and illegible manuscripts. The Royal Economic Society commissioned Dr. W. Stark to make a closer scrutiny of this material, which in 1952 was published in three volumes under the title Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings (London: Allen and Unwin).

The Defense of Usury, however, which is included in these volumes, was published in 1787 and acquired immediate celebrity. Bentham was a great admirer of Adam Smith, whom he called "the father of political economy" and a writer of consummate genius." But he was not an uncritical admirer, and in the Defense of Usury, which he published eleven years after the appearance of The Wealth of Nations, he ventured to take the master to task for his inconsistency in approving so-called anti-usury laws while opposing government price-fixing in practically every other field.

"The Liberty of Bargaining in money matters," wrote Bentham, is "a species of liberty which has never yet found an advocate." Yet "fixing the rate of interest, being a coercive measure, and an exception to the general rule in favor of the enforcement of contracts, it lies upon the advocates of the measure to produce reasons for it." Examining the reasons that had been offered, Bentham rejected them as invalid, and proceeded to explain the positive "mischiefs" done by the anti-usury laws. He concluded that there is "no more reason for fixing the price of the use of money than the price of goods."

Notable Quote: Adam Smith

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantage" (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter ii, Section 2).

Benn, Sir Ernest

Benn, Sir Ernest. Confessions of a Capitalist. London: Hutchinson. 1925. 287 pp.

"A telling defense of individual initiative." - London Financial News. "A book which is unique in economic literature. Sir Ernest's pen is as vivid as his mind is fearless and independent. ... He tells us the most intimate details of his business. ... The whole is accompanied by a running line of argument on the fundamental problems of economics, which is set out so skillfully as to be as entertaining and arresting as the autobiographical details." - Lionel Robbins.

The Return to Laisser Faire. London: Ernest Benn. 1928. 221 pp.

An Argument against the extension of governmental activity and interference in England and a plea for a return to individualism. Public aid to housing and the growing burden of bureaucracy are special targets. Even reviewers hostile to the author's thesis paid tribute to "the entertaining style, the caustic wit, the arresting illustration."

The State the Enemy. London: Ernest Benn. 1953. 175 pp.

The author reviews the British experiment in state intervention and socialism all the way from Lloyd George, who inherited a budget of L100 million, to Attlee, who left it at L4,000 million, and sums up the record of failure: "Nationalization has not brought the expected smile to the face of the worker, full employment has not encouraged production, the management of money has not improved its quality; in fact, all the anticipations of the original Fabian Essays, the bases of modern Socialism, have proved disappointing, if not entirely fallacious." The style is lively, witty and aphoristic.