Abstract
The Fable of the Bees of Bernard Mandeville and Chi-mi of The Book of Guan Zi have much similarity in their economic reasoning. Both argue that extravagance in consumption spending will stimulate economic activity. The social political objectives of the two works are however very different. While The Fable of the Bees strives against religious and moral restraints on consumption, Chi-mi advocates extravagance as a political strategy to strengthen the control of the sovereign over powerful lords and officers and rich merchants. The amoral reasoning of The Fable of the Bees inspired classical economics. On the other hand, the economic analysis of Chi-mi had no significant impact on Chinese thinking given the tradition of suppression of commerce in pre-modern China.
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