Defence of Usury;: Shewing the Impolicy of the Present Legal Restraints on the Terms of Pecuniary Bargains. ... [with] A Letter to Adam Smith ...

'BOTH IN STYLE AND IN MATTER ONE OF THE MOST
MASTERLY OF [HIS] ECONOMICAL WRITINGS'
POWERFULLY INFLUENTIAL ARGUMENT FOR REFORM
first Irish edition 12mo. [8 (half-title, title, contents)], 232pp., contemporary tan calf, smooth spine panelled by blind rolls, red morocco title label, small patch of silverfish damage (leather eaten away) on front board near head of front joint, else a very nice fresh copy.
Contemporary signature "J. Rochfort" at head of title page and with the contemporary armorial bookplate of John Rochfort on front endpaper.

ESTC t101730 Goldsmith's-Kress 13615
This work, first published in London in 1787, Bentham's "first important economical work, is a series of lively letters (written from Russia in 1787), in which he appeals to Adam Smith to apply his principles consistently, and withdraw his sanction from 'legal restraints on pecuniary bargains'. He contents that no man should be forbidden to make his own terms in a bargain relating to money, any more than any other bargains. He tries to prove, by closely reasoned arguments, that, when the legislature fixes a maximum rate of interest, it does not benefit the right persons, while it corrupts the public by multiplying temptations to law-breaking. He proceeds on the general principle that every man is the best judge of his own interest, and it is for the public good that he should be left free to seek it. Bentham was one of the first economical writers who were completely emancipated from the old prejudices against lending of money at interest; and he combats not only the old arguments against usury, but Adam Smith's special plea that, without a legal maximum, money would pass from sober people to the prodigals and projectors. The prodigals, said Bentham, would not get it, and the projectors ought to get it. As Adam Smith himself has frequently remarked, all industrial progress depends on the formation of new industrial schemes, or, in other words, on the work of projectors. In hindering projectors, therefore, we are hindering the public good. So argued Bentham; and Adam Smith is said to have confessed .. that in this point the disciple had bettered the instruction of his master. Both in style and in matter this is one of the most masterly of Bentham's economical writings" [Palgrave Dictionary of Political Economy].Apparently the signature and bookplate of John Rochfort (1735 - 1812) of Clogrenane. Co. Carlow with that family's coat of arms and crest but with a different motto from usual. Both his father and son, also both John, were members of the Irish parliament as were many other members of the family over several generations.