John Locke’s Liberal Politics of Money

This chapter connects Locke’s lesser-known economic tracts with the natural rights philosophy of his much more familiar political writings. It frames Locke’s liberal political economy in the context of the monetary crises that befell England in the 1690’s. Locke’s account of money, which draws upon key features of his epistemology and political theory, developed in the context of the public controversy over raising interest rates and the debate about re-coining clipped coins to their original weight, measure and value. Locke’s response to these controversies—advocating government non-intervention in the former case, and massive government intervention related to the latter—signifies both the complex natural rights foundation of Locke’s political economy, and the significant element of interest-based considerations of utility in Locke’s liberal statecraft.