Mercantilisme contre libéralisme en Angleterre : la réflexion économique sur le taux d'intérêt

From the time when usury laws were first passed in the sixteenth century, the question of interest rates has been central in the debate between writers advocating regulation and those favouring deregulation. And while the former have been associated with mercantilism since Adam Smith coined the word, and the latter with laissez faire, the cliché seems somewhat inaccurate when seen from the perspective of economic thought, Indeed, various late mercantilists, including Petty and Locke, as well as Hume and Steuart, stress the role of the supply and demand of loanable funds, even if most authors argue that, because the loan market does not regulate itself, monetary policy should be one of the State's prerogatives. Adam Smith himself takes the same view and his free-market approach should not be oversimplified