JOSIAH CHILD, INTEREST RATES, AND JOHN LOCKE’S “FOR A GENERAL NATURALIZATION”
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Date
2021
Authors
Smith, Brian
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Modern Intellectual History
Abstract
Throughout the 1690s there were several high-profile parliamentary debates about lowering inter est rates from 6 to 4 percent. Locke’s involvement in these policy debates is significant. In this
period, he circulated at least one important pamphlet on this issue to various Members of
Parliament. The purpose of this article is to illuminate the links between Locke’s arguments
against interest rate reduction and immigration policy. Locke’s essay “For a General
Naturalization” (1693) employs some of the same pro-naturalization formulations that Josiah
Child uses in A New Discourse of Trade (1693), a pamphlet that was ostensibly published in
support of the parliamentary proposal for lower interest rates. Even though Locke had a long his tory with pro-naturalization arguments, the framework of his essay on naturalization is very
likely an extension of those debates with Child about interest rates from 1691/2.
Description
Keywords
Type of access: Open Access, Naturalization
Citation
Smith, B. (2021). Josiah Child, Interest Rates, and John Locke’s “For a General Naturalization.” Modern Intellectual History, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1479244321000494