An Activist Stance

The 1828 French Translation of Jeremy Bentham'sDefence of Usury

Bibliographic Data

ID4297543
AuthorsNathalie Sigot (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume48
Issue4
Pages705-731
Publication date2016-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Political Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2702 • E-ISSN: 1527-1919
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182702-3687319
OpenAlexW2557723435
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

This article aims to understand the reasons why, in 1828, Jeremy Bentham's Defence of Usury was translated into French by Saint-Amand Bazard, one of the two leaders of the Saint-Simonians, even though it had already been translated twice, in 1790. Addressing this issue enables us, first, to question the role of translations in the diffusion of economic ideas and, second, to better understand the relationship between a key component of the Saint-Simonians' economic theory-their ideas about the banking system-and Bentham's criticism of the usury laws that prevailed at the time. We reject the possibility that Bazard translated Bentham's work because he thought the two earlier translations inadequate and instead argue that he used the translation as a method to diffuse Saint-Simonian theories on credit and banking

Art history · Criticism · Economics · Jeremy bentham · Law and economics · Neoclassical economics · Political science · SAINT · Sociology · Theology · Usury · Economic Theory and Institutions · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Political Theory and Influence

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