BENTHAM, Jeremy.

£17,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Defence of Usury; Shewing the Impolicy of the Present legal Restraints on the terms of Pecuniary Bargains. First edition, scarce in commerce, of Bentham's first work on economics, a stinging critique of Smith's Wealth of Nations. Smith had defended the state regulation of interest rates for money lending. Bentham deems this inconsistent with Smith's wider laissez-faire philosophy and contends that no adult of sound mind, acting freely and in awareness of the likely consequences, should be hindered from making any bargain that they see fit.Smith is reported to have said that Bentham "has given me some hard knocks... but in so handsome a manner that I cannot complain" (Milner, p. 82). John Stuart Mill acclaimed the work as "the best extant writing" on the economic impact of regulated interest rates (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).Provenance: Charles Pratt, first Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor in Pitt's ministry from 1766 to 1770, with his engraved armorial bookplate; later in the library of the lawyer George Goyder (1908-1997), noted for the fine condition of his books, with his bookplate.

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