Defence of Usury
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~45,300 words · 215 passages
Cite this work
- APAJeremy Bentham. (n.d.). Defence of Usury. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/jeremy-bentham/defence-of-usury
- MLAJeremy Bentham. "Defence of Usury." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/jeremy-bentham/defence-of-usury.
- ChicagoJeremy Bentham. Defence of Usury. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/jeremy-bentham/defence-of-usury.
What it is about
Defence of Usury (1787): against legal caps on the rate of interest.
Context and history
Written as letters from Russia. The argument is that no adult should be prevented from agreeing the price of a loan. Adam Smith, who did defend a cap, later conceded that Bentham was right — one of the few times he is seen to give way.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
so much in England, I do not recollect ever seeing any thing yet offered in behalf of the liberty of making one's own terms in money -bargains. From so general and universal a neglect, it is an old notion of mine, as y
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