{"id":525630,"date":"2024-11-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=525630"},"modified":"2024-11-17T11:05:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T10:05:21","slug":"mandeville-fable-des-abeilles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/economy\/mandeville-fable-des-abeilles\/","title":{"rendered":"The founding myth of economic liberalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a little-known text first published in 1705, Bernard Mandeville set out some of the central themes of what would become economic liberalism. Diving into The Fable of the Bees<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We're all familiar with La Fontaine's fables and their morals. Less well known are The Fable of the Bees<\/em>, composed in the early 18th centuryth<\/sup> century by a Dutch-born physician, descendant of a Huguenot, who nevertheless spent most of his life in England: Bernard Mandeville. The heart of the collection of texts published under the title of Fable of the bees<\/em> is a poem entitled \u00abLa ruche murmurante ou les fripons devenus honn\u00eates\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It evokes a prosperous beehive, whose bees live in \u00abhappy abundance\u00bb. Only, in this astonishing society, the filthiest vice is omnipresent: selfishness, gluttony, corruption, etc. \u00abDoctors,\u00bb we read, \u00abpreferred reputation to science and riches to the recovery of their patients.\u00bb And the narrator adds a few lines later: \"Who could detail all the frauds that were committed in this hive?\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What's most astonishing here is that Mandeville's poem is very clear about the origin of the hive's prosperity. It is not in spite of the bees\u00ab vices, but thanks to them: \u00bbThe vices of individuals contributed to public felicity. As soon as virtue, instructed by cunning politicians, learned a thousand happy tricks of finesse and befriended vice, the most scoundrels did something for the common good.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n