In this month’s Adam Smith 300 essay for Capital Matters, Paul Oslington of Alphacrucis University College in Australia writes about Smith’s views on usury in The Wealth of Nations:
Amidst the celebrations of Adam Smith’s 300th birthday, an examination of Smith’s attitude on interest regulation offers insight into his approach to public policy, especially for those, including the present writer, who have argued that understanding the Calvinist and Newtonian natural-theological backgrounds to his thought are important. Interest-rate restrictions are one of many exceptions to his generally free-market approach. Other exceptions include limited Church privileges, the Navigation Acts (which restricted trade to British ships), and limited arguments for tariffs on foreign trade. When considering these exceptions, we need to remember that 18th-century Britain was a very different environment from contemporary America and that Smith had a keen awareness of which reforms were politically feasible.
Read the whole thing here.