ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the moral economics developed by Jane Austen. After briefly explaining why she considers Austen’s writings as novel economics rather than economic novels, Joanna Rostek explores the moral economic significance of Sense and Sensibility (1811). By studying the novel’s characters, who variously epitomise commendable and faulty moral economic behaviour, Rostek illustrates that Austen lays a focus on the question of how to balance economic self-interest with one’s moral obligations towards other members of the community. In this, Austen’s approach is comparable to, if more pessimistic than, Adam Smith’s. The coda to the chapter brings us back to the twenty-first century, as it contains a short close reading of the £10 note depicting Jane Austen, which the Bank of England released in 2017.
