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Hello, Bernard Manderville, 1670 to 1733, scandalized the British establishment with his book,

Fable of the Bees, in which he argued that private vices were essential to a healthy economy.

Those who strive to make the world virtuous would make it poor, he said.

This honesty supports lawyers, who then support their tailors and their cooks, and gambling,

diversified money from those who don't know its value to those who do and can invest it wisely.

Many of our virtues, he wrote, are in fact disguised vices.

Manderville was one of the first to emphasize the role of the consumer in the economy rather

than the state.

And he was to influence ideas from Adam Smith in the 18th century to Keynes and Hayark in the

20th.

Let me just discuss the favour of the Bees are David Wooden, Professor of History at

University of York, Helen Paul, lecturer in economics and economic history at the University

of Southampton and John Cullenen, Senior Lecture in Philosophy at King's College London.

David Wooden, what do we need to know about Bernard Manderville's early life in Rotterdam?

His father is a doctor.

He's raised in a city which is one of the commercial capitals of the world at the time and Holland

is one of the intellectual capitals of the world at the time.

...