Writings on Political Economy

In the mid-1780s Bentham drafted his first sustained discussions of political economy and public finance for <em>Projet Matiere</em> (itself part of <em>Projet d'un corps de loix complet</em>). Those discussions are now lost but the corresponding marginal contents open this volume followed by three closely related appendices. The volume continues with <em>Defence of Usury</em> first published 1787 which was well received quickly translated and established some reputation for Bentham in political economy. In 1790 while preparing a second edition Bentham drafted the raft of additional materials included here in five appendices. At the same time he began <em>Manual of Political Economy</em> an introductory handbook which he never finished while the surviving text appears here supplemented by seven appendices. In March 1793 Bentham reacted to press reports of the Irish Budget by composing <em>A Protest against Law Taxes</em> a trenchant critique of the taxation of legal proceedings and the denial of justice to the<br>poor which was printed in 1793 published in 1795 and extended in 1816 and which completes the volume.<br>