Abstract
The author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States took a profound interest in the intellectual currents of his time that extended to economics. He was a friend of leading physiocrats, and energetically promoted the study of political economy in the United States. When in his seventies, the former president spent five hours a day over a period of three months revising the translation from the French of Destutt de Tracy’s Treatise on Political Economy, which was eventually published in Georgetown, D.C., in 1817, after Jefferson had written more than 20 letters in search of a publisher.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman
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Bibliography
Dorfman, J. 1946. The economic mind in American civilization 1606–1865, vol. 1. New York: Viking.
Luttrell, C.B. 1975. Thomas Jefferson on money and banking; disciple of David Hume and forerunner of some modern monetary views. History of Political Economy 7(2): 156–173.
Spengler, J.J. 1940. The political economy of Jefferson, Madison and Adams. In American studies in honor of William Kenneth Boyd, ed. D.K. Jackson. Durham: Duke University Press.
Spiegel, H.W. 1960. The rise of American economic thought. Philadelphia: Chilton.
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Spiegel, H.W. (1987). Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1079-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1079-1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5
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