The Fable of the Bees

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The Fable of The Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits is a book by Bernard
Mandeville, consisting of the poem The Grumbling Hive: or, Knaves turn’d Honest and
prose discussion of it. The poem was published in 1705 and the book first appeared in
1714.[1] The poem elucidates many key principles of economic thought, including
division of labor and the invisible hand, seventy years before Adam Smith (indeed, John
Maynard Keynes argues Smith was probably referencing Mandeville[2]). It also describes
the paradox of thrift centuries before Keynes, and may been seen as part of the school of
underconsumption.

At the time, however, it was considered scandalous. Keynes reports in his General
Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, 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'."[3]

In the Dictionary of National Biography, Leslie Stephen describes it as follows:

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. 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....

Keynes observes that this is a precursor to his theory of effective demand. He notes that
the book describes the paradox of thrift—showing that a community that forsakes luxury
for savings achieves neither.

The poem
The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits consisted of a poem, The
Grumbling Hive, or Knaves Turn'd Honest, along with an extensive prose commentary.
The poem had appeared in 1705 and was intended as a commentary on England as
Mandeville saw it
 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.

Prose expansions
The poem attracted little attention. The 1714 work soon became famous/notorious, being
understood as an attack on Christian virtues. What it actually means remains
controversial down to the present day. He did say:

What Country soever in the Universe is to be understood by the Bee-Hive

represented here, it is evident from what is said of the Laws and Constitution of it,
the Glory, Wealth, Power and Industry of its Inhabitants, that it must be a large,
rich and warlike Nation, that is happily govern’d by a limited Monarchy. The
Satyr therefore to be met with in the following Lines upon the several Professions
and Callings, and almost every Degree and Station of People, was not made to
injure and point to a particular Persons, but only to shew the Vileness of the
Ingredients that all together compose the wholesome Mixture of a well-order’d
Society; in order to extol the wonderful Power of Political Wisdom, by the help of
 which so beautiful a Machine is rais’d from the most contemptible Branches. For
the main Design of the Fable, (as it is briefly explain’d in the Moral) is to shew
the Impossibility of enjoying all the most elegant Comforts of Life that are to be
met with in an industrious, wealthy and powerful Nation, and at the same time be
bless’d with all the Virtue and Innocence that can be wish’d for in a Golden Age;
from thence to expose the Unreasonableness and Folly of those, that desirous of
being an opulent and flourishing People, and wonderfully greedy after all the
Benefits they can receive as such, are yet always murmuring at and exclaiming
against those Vices and Inconveniences, that from the Beginning of the World to
this present Day, have been inseparable from all Kingdoms and States that ever
were fam’d for Strength, Riches, and Politeness, at the same time.

Economic views
Mandeville is widely regarded as a serious economist and philosopher. He produced a
second volume of The Fable of the Bees in 1732, with an extensive set of dialogues that
set out his economic views. His ideas about the Division of labor draw on those of
William Petty, and are similar to those of Adam Smith.[4] Mandeville says:

When once Men come to be govern’d by written Laws, all the rest comes on a-
pace. Now Property, and Safety of Life and Limb, may be secured: This naturally
will forward the Love of Peace, and make it spread. No number of Men, when
once they enjoy Quiet, and no Man needs to fear his Neighbour, will be long
without learning to divide and subdivide their Labour...
Man, as I have hinted before, naturally loves to imitate what he sees others do,
which is the reason that savage People all do the same thing: This hinders them
from meliorating their Condition, though they are always wishing for it: But if
one will wholly apply himself to the making of Bows and Arrows, whilst another
provides Food, a third builds Huts, a fourth makes Garments, and a fifth Utensils,
they not only become useful to one another, but the Callings and Employments
themselves will in the same Number of Years receive much greater
Improvements, than if all had been promiscuously follow’d by every one of the
Five...
The truth of what you say is in nothing so conspicuous, as it is in Watch-making,
which is come to a higher degree of Perfection, than it would have been arrived at
yet, if the whole had always remain’d the Employment of one Person; and I am
persuaded, that even the Plenty we have of Clocks and Watches, as well as the
Exactness and Beauty they may be made of, are chiefly owing to the Division that
has been made of that Art into many Branches. (The Fable of the Bees, Volume
two).