Reflections on Gaming Annuities, and Usurious Contracts.

£1,650 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

ESTC records copies of this edition at Harvard School of Business, Newberry, Rutgers, Illinois and University of Kansas. First published in 1776 (Ohio State and Yale only) An angry argument for the restriction of high stake gaming, life annuities and high interest loans arguing that it destroys the fabric of society and requires strict Government regulation. Marked-up and critically annotated by the lawyer and governor of Quebec, Francis Maseres, who had himself written on the use of life annuities to support the poor. The jails are filled with debtors which languish away unheard of, and the gibbets bend with the bodies of assassins; the women turn prostitutes, and if not swept away by the arm of justice, are left to rot by inches in the streets, to poison the sources of the rising generation, and nip population in the bud; while the children that in a few years should be readY to arm in defence of their country, when so many clouds are thickening over her, are left to perish for want of care, or survive only to infect society with their vices“ (p.9). Erskine suggests that a law should be imposed whereby anyone winning a sum over forty pounds in a 24 hour period should be forced to pay into a public fund which would contribute to institutions such as the Chelsea and Greenwich hospitals. The author also argues that stricter laws should be imposed regarding usurious contracts arguing that many of these agreements amount to a gamble and should be undertaken with the same caution

• Year: 1777

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