The revolution that did not happen: Terence Hutchison on the political economy of Jeremy Bentham

Abstract

The three-volume edition of Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings, edited by Werner Stark, was published between 1952 and 1954, and reviewed by Terence Hutchison in the Economic Journal in 1956. Based on the Stark edition, Hutchison argued that there had been a dramatic shift in Bentham's views and policy recommendations between his earlier and later writings on political economy. With the benefit of a new, five-volume edition of Bentham's Writings on Political Economy, edited by Michael Quinn, it can now be seen that the revolution in Bentham's views on political economy proposed by Hutchison did not take place. On the contrary, an examination of Bentham's treatment of fiscal and monetary policy in his principal general works on political economy, the Manual of Political Economy and the Institute of Political Economy, show a remarkable consistency, both in policy recommendations, and in the body of economic analysis in which they were based.