Profile Major Works Resources

Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790.

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin

Journalist, inventor, statesman and diplomat, the American polymath Benjamin Franklin is too well-known to need an introduction. Less well-known are his contributions to economics. Franklin was particularly concerned with both the situation of America -- notably impact of the the British Mercantilist policies, abundant land and scarce labor on American economic development.  Franklin was much inspired by William Petty, particularly on population, believing that labor, rather than gold, was the appropriate measure of value (for this, Franklin was given an enthusiastic applause by Marx).  Franklin departed from the Mercantilists in the "war" concept of commerce.  Echoing the Physiocrats, Franklin (1769) believed land and agriculture was the "natural" way of increasing the nations wealth.

Curiously, his economic ideas had little impact on the younger American statesmen that sat at his feet.  Thomas Jefferson was entranced by the work of Condillac and Destutt de Tracy, Alexander Hamilton's writings on paper currency inclined him to John Law's doctrines, while James Madison signed up with Malthus on population. 

Benjamin Franklin was one of the founders of the University of Pennsylvania.

 

  

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Major Works of Benjamin Franklin

  • A Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity of Paper Currency, 1729 [ccop]
  • Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, 1751 
  • The Way to Wealth, 1758
  • The Interest of Great Britain Considered with Regard to her Colonies and the Acquisition of Canada and Guadaloupe, 1760
  • On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor,1767 
  • Facts Concerning American Paper Money, 1767
  • "On Physiocracy", Letter to DuPont du Nemours,  1768 
  • Letter to Tom Paine
  • Positions to be Examined Concerning National Wealth, 1769.
  • Causes of the American Discontents before 1768;The Rise and Progress of the Differences between Great Britain and her American Colonies, 1774
  • The Result of England's Persistence in her Policy towards the Colonies Illustrated, 1774; 
  • Comparison of Great Britain and the United States, 1777
  • The Paper Money of the United States, 1784
  • The Internal State of America; Information to those who would remove to America, 1784 
  • Speech to the Constitutional Convention, 28 June 1787
  • Speech to the Constitutional Convention, 17 September, 1787
  • Reflections on the Augmentation of Wages which will be Occasioned in Europe by the American Revolution, 1788
  • Wail of a Protected Manufacturer,1789 
  • Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1791 (copy)
HET

 
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Resources on Benjamin Franklin

 

 
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