William Letwin (1922–2013)

This book has some (more-or-less) hidden gems: For example, how Josiah Child was special pleading though "he spoke the language of free-trade with the faltering tongue on one first discovering it."(44) Likewise, of Nicholas Barbon, he says the man argued that international trade should be free, stating 'that the prohibition of foreign wares does not necessarily cause a greater consumption of the like sort of English.' But then: "it is only curious that having argued so well for free trade he takes back in his summary much of what he has given before." (59-60) And again, he gives a whole little section of the Barbon chapter to a very interesting discussion of the Restoration Recoinage. (64-75) Another gem: Chapter 3 has a good analysis about the standing of economic writers in the late 17th c. and why many wrote anonymously. He concludes: "As the customary writers on economic matters could not hope to assume the mantle of personal authority and were obliged instead to defend themselves constantly against personal disqualification, to find a form of argument as impersonal as possible was their best hope."… (meer)