著者

松本 哲人

出版者

マルサス学会事務局

雑誌

マルサス学会年報 (ISSN:18831397)

巻号頁・発行日

no.18, pp.1-30, 2009

著者

松本 哲人

出版者

The Japanease Society for the History of Economic Thought

雑誌

経済学史研究 (ISSN:18803164)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.61, no.1, pp.133-134, 2019 (Released:2019-10-14)

著者

松本 哲人

出版者

経済学史学会

雑誌

経済学史研究 (ISSN:18803164)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.58, no.1, pp.153-154, 2016 (Released:2019-11-29)

著者

松本 哲人

出版者

経済学史学会

雑誌

経済学史研究 (ISSN:18803164)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.53, no.1, pp.64-81, 2011 (Released:2019-08-21)

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This paper aims to discuss Joseph Priestleyʼs ar-gument regarding antislavery and compare his contention with those of Erasmus Darwin and Adam Smith. Eighteenth-century England wit-nessed numerous arguments over antislavery. Joseph Priestley, known as a prolific writer, also wrote a remarkable book on antislavery, A Sermon of the Slave Trade (1788), hereafter SST The book, however, has not gained promi-nence. Priestleyʼs argument regarding antislavery also featured in his Lectures on History and General Policy (1788, hereafter LH). He gave lectures on history, language and grammar, and law and politics at the Warrington Academy from 1761 to 1767 and organized and published them later. In the book, Priestley divided his dis-cussions on slavery on the basis of two aspects, humanitarian and economic, and discussed them briefly. Priestley discussed slavery in great detail in SST. The humanitarian discussions were previously conducted by Darwin. He appealed to the benevolence implanted in human nature. Al-though Priestley did not directly refer to Darwin, their arguments were rather similar. With regard to the economic discussions, Priestley said that he read Smithʼs Wealth of Nations (1776), wherein he discovered certain general principles illustrated by Smith. Priestley learned considera-bly from Smith and was inspired by him. More-over, Priestleyʼs antislavery debates were influ-enced by Smithʼs arguments. Both the humanitarian and economic charac-teristics of Priestleyʼs argument coexisted in his books, whether LH or SST. Therefore, Priestley considered not only the economic aspects dis-cussed by Smith but also the humanitarian (or ethical) aspects, which continued to feature in the mainstream after Hutcheson advocated them. Smith had not discussed the latter aspect. JEL classification numbers: B 12, B 31.