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''The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Public Benefits'' is a book by Bernard Mandeville, consisting of the poem, ''The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves turn’d Honest,'' along with prose discussion of the poem. The poem was published in 1705, and the book first appeared in 1714.〔http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=846&layout=html#chapter_66840〕 The poem suggests many key principles of economic thought, including division of labor and the "invisible hand", seventy years before these concepts were more thoroughly elucidated by Adam Smith.〔Smith does not cite Mandeville in "Wealth of Nations", but Edwin Cannan, editor of the 1904 edition, notes in several places where Smith appears to have been influenced by Mandeville. See notes in at pp. 3, 10, 12, 14, and 102.〕 Two centuries later, the noted economist John Maynard Keynes cited Mandeville to show that it was "no new thing ... to ascribe the evils of unemployment to ... the insufficiency of the propensity to consume",〔, ch. 23, sec. vii, p. 358.〕 a condition also known as the ''paradox of thrift,'' which was central to his own theory of effective demand. At the time, however, it was considered scandalous. Keynes noted that it was "convicted as a nuisance by the grand jury of Middlesex in 1723, which stands out in the history of the moral sciences for its scandalous reputation. Only one man is recorded as having spoken a good word for it, namely Dr. Johnson, who declared that it did not puzzle him, but 'opened his eyes into real life very much'."〔, (p. 359 ).〕 It was also reported that: Mandeville gave great offense by this book, in which a cynical system of morality was made attractive by ingenious paradoxes. ... His doctrine that prosperity was increased by expenditure rather than by saving fell in with many current economic fallacies not yet extinct.〔Stephen's "current economic fallacies not yet extinct" refers to the Mercantilism.〕 Assuming with the ascetics that human desires were essentially evil and therefore produced "private vices" and assuming with the common view that wealth was a "public benefit", he easily showed that all civilization implied the development of vicious propensities.... ==The poem== The poem had appeared in 1705 and was intended as a commentary on England as Mandeville saw it. Keynes described the poem as setting forth "the appalling plight of a prosperous community in which all the citizens suddenly take it into their heads to abandon luxurious living, and the State to cut down armaments, in the interests of Saving".〔, p. 360.〕 :A Spacious Hive well stock'd with Bees, :That lived in Luxury and Ease; :And yet as fam'd for Laws and Arms, :As yielding large and early Swarms; :Was counted the great Nursery :Of Sciences and Industry. :No Bees had better Government, :More Fickleness, or less Content. :They were not Slaves to Tyranny, :Nor ruled by wild Democracy; :But Kings, that could not wrong, because :Their Power was circumscrib'd by Laws. The "hive" is corrupt but prosperous, yet it grumbles about lack of virtue. A higher power decides to give them what they ask for: :But Jove, with Indignation moved, :At last in Anger swore, he'd rid :The bawling Hive of Fraud, and did. :The very Moment it departs, :And Honesty fills all their Hearts; This results in a rapid loss of prosperity, though the newly virtuous hive does not mind: :For many Thousand Bees were lost. :Hard'ned with Toils, and Exercise :They counted Ease it self a Vice; :Which so improved their Temperance; :That, to avoid Extravagance, :They flew into a hollow Tree, :Blest with Content and Honesty. The poem ends in a famous phrase: :Bare Virtue can't make Nations live :In Splendor; they, that would revive :A Golden Age, must be as free, :For Acorns, as for Honesty. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Fable of the Bees」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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