Observations on the Restrictive and Prohibitory Commercial System (Illustrated)

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Jeremy Bentham was a British philosopher, jurist, social reformer and the founder of modern utilitarianism. He is in the row with the greatest thinkers Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, John Keynes, John Locke, and Alfred Marshall.  Their thoughts had strong influence on building the foundation of the United States and its endeavor of open society.

Jeremy Bentham invented the axiom of the greatest happiness of the greatest number. His writings emphasised the pursuit of happiness and freedom and became popular in the new republics of America and the other counties.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE RESTRICTIVE AND PROHIBITORY COMMERCIAL SYSTEM is one of the most important works by Jeremy Bentham with great relevance to modern free trade debate. The book is regarded as the pioneer discussion of the beneficial effects of freedom of trade. Bentham in the book provided a deep critique of colonialism using the liberal utilitarian tradition. He argued that colonies were not a source of wealth to the colonizing country because they were not only wasteful and expensive. They posed a threat to constitutional government itself and should therefore be granted unconditional independence with a condition to the establishment of unrestricted commercial relations. Using Spain and Spanish America as an example, Jeremey Bentham concluded that unconditional independence of colonies would produce a mutual benefit to both the colonizing country and colonies.

Jeremy Bentham’s work produced great influence on utilitarianism, philosophy, jurist, and economics. His influence has been felt in nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences.

This book is one of the most important ones about the deepest thoughts of free trade Jeremy Bentham, one of the greatest thinkers of modern economics and philosophy on the planet.