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The Anglo-Irish context for William Edward Hearn's economic beliefs and the ultimate failure of his Plutology

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09672560903114883

1469-5936

Gregory C G Moore,

Economic Theory and Institutions

Abstract William Edward Hearn is generally regarded as Australia's first economist of international note and his Plutology ([1863]1864) is invariably deemed to be Australia's first economics text. In this paper I argue that it is more appropriate to describe Hearn as an Anglo-Irish economist and, to this end, provide the Anglo-Irish context for the economic doctrines that he expressed in Plutology and elsewhere. I also argue that the failure of Plutology in the market place was, in part, due to a campaign waged against Hearn in London by John Elliot Cairnes, who was an undergraduate contemporary of Hearn's at Trinity College, Dublin. Keywords: William Edward HearnIrish Political Economy Notes A version of this paper was presented at the Australian Economists Conference, which was held in 2005 at the University of Melbourne. Some of the biographical findings from this paper were used for a short entry on Hearn for The Biographical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Economists (2007). It was first submitted to a refereed journal (The European Journal of the History Economic Thought) in December 2008. 1 The most prominent of these studies are D. B. Copland's (Citation1935) slim volume W. E. Hearn. First Australian Economist; J. A. La Nauze's (Citation1949) essay on Hearn within his influential book Political Economy in Australia. Historical Studies; La Nauze's (Citation1972) well-crafted entry on Hearn for the Australian Dictionary of Biography; and the sections devoted to Hearn in P. Groenewegen and B. McFarlane's (1990) admirable study A History of Australian Economic Thought. To these influential texts may be added the many other worthy publications that are devoted to particular aspects of Hearn's life and work (see Scott Citation1936; La Nauze Citation1941, Citation1965; Blainey Citation1957; Foley 1989–90; Goodwin Citation1964, Citation1966; Gordon Citation1967; Foster Citation1971; Campbell Citation1977; Boylan and Foley Citation1989, Citation1990, Citation1992; White Citation1987; Treloar and Pullen Citation1998; Forget Citation1999; Mitchell Citation2004). See also the Hearn Correspondence (ANU), the Hearn Papers (Melbourne) and the file on Hearn in the La Nauze Papers (Melbourne). 2 The lineage of the Hearn family may be partly reconstructed from the liberal amounts of genealogical information relating to the Irish Diaspora now on the Web. Reference to the family is also contained in printed publications, such as William T. Hearne's (Citation1907 edition, 1912 Addendum) Brief History and Genealogy of the Hearne Family, and B. Burke's (Citation1891: 107–8) Colonial Gentry. However, care must be taken when consulting these sources, as they are plagued by misspellings and simple falsehoods, presumably driven in part by the researcher's quest for reputable ancestors. Conflicting dates also result. Thus some sources claim that Archdeacon Hearn arrived in Ireland in 1732, not 1713, and that he died in 1764, not 1766. I have chosen the most plausible date when there is any doubt. Also note that the speculation in the above paragraph that Hearn's ancestor changed his name from Heron (as well as the nature of his subsequent arrival in Ireland) derives from William Edward Hearn's nephew, and was probably part of the family's oral history (see Hearne Citation1912: 803). 3 For the topography and socio-economic condition of Cavan in Hearn's youth, see Lewis (Citation1837), Anonymous (Citation1877) and various websites devoted to County Cavan. The discrepancy in the date given for Hearn's birth arises because Hearn's obituary in The Argus states 22 April 1826, whereas La Nauze (Citation1972: 370) states 21 April 1826. 4 This gave rise to the Tithe Wars. The clergy collected the ‘shillings, pence and farthings’ themselves or employed collectors. The collectors were often murdered and the police protecting them fired upon. Some clergymen were consequently impoverished from an inability to extract their dues. The position had become so dire by 1832 that the British Government collected the tithes on behalf of the clergy using cavalry, infantry and artillery. In 1838 this religious tax was reduced by 25% and reworked as a charge on the landlords, who, as any economist would have surmised, simply transferred the charge on to the Catholic cottiers via higher rents (Cornish Citation1910: 142ff). See Le Fanu (Citation1896) and McCormack (Citation1980) for vivid descriptions of the occasional violence experienced by the Protestant clergy in the backward agricultural districts of Ireland during this period. 5 The secondary references about Portora often contain errors. Since it received its charter, opened, moved to Enniskillen and then to Portora Hill on different dates, very nearly every author provides a different date of its conception. It consequently has the honour of being launched by James I, Charles I and Charles II, depending on which text one consults. The information relating to Hearn's career at this school is also limited. The Portora tradition of new students signing their names in the ‘signing-in book’, as well the various Honours Boards and detailed records, unfortunately date from 1857, when the reverend William Steele took up the position of headmaster and made the school of some reknown. It is, for this reason, not possible to provide the precise dates in which Hearn was enrolled at this school or the prizes that he won. For details about the school (and Enniskillen) see Lewis (Citation1837), Trimble (c.1916), Stuart (Citation1937), and Quane (1968). Limited information may also be found in biographies of its alma mata, such as Hyde (Citation1976)and Bair (Citation[1978]1990). I would like to thank T. Thirgood, a master at Portora, for providing me with various details about the school, as well as photocopies of scarce locally produced histories of the school. 6 There are numerous institutional histories and catalogues relating to TCD. See Mahaffy et al. (Citation1892), Dixon (Citation1902), Burtchaell and Sadlier (Citation1924), Maxwell (Citation1946), and especially McDowell and Webb (Citation1982). It also should be noted that there is a slim possibility Hearn embarked upon his university studies from home under the guidance of his father, as TCD was then unique amongst British universities for allowing students (under what was called the country-list system) to sit the periodic examinations held at TCD without attending lectures or even residing in Dublin (see McCormack Citation1980: 42). 7 As McCormack (Citation1980: 1) relates: ‘The comparatively closed ranks of the professional grades among the Anglo-Irish were perpetuated in intermarriage. The Le Fanus were related to the Sheridans by three alliances, to the Knowles by two, to the Dobbins by two, and the Bennetts by two. Furthermore they retained surnames as Christian names, and perpetuated favourite names through four or more generations’. The extended Le Fanu family is described in Le Fanu (Citation1924), which is itself based on the extensive unpublished research undertaken by Rose Hearn's brother, W. J. H. Le Fanu. 8 See also Boylan and Foley (Citation2000) for a meticulously researched account of the mutual antipathy between Cairnes and Cliffe Leslie. For more detailed appraisals of each individual, see Moore (Citation1995, Citation1999, Citation2000, Citation2002) and the standard text on Irish political economy (Boylan and Foley Citation1992). Also note that there is a slim possibility that one or two of these young men kept irregular terms at TCD due to the aforementioned country-list system, in which a student short of funds was permitted to study from home in preparation for the periodic examinations. All indirect evidence, however, suggests that these individuals became acquainted with one another before graduation. See the Ingram Papers and the Cairnes Papers for their correspondence. 9 Not all of these papers related to the condition of Ireland. As the 1850s progressed, contemporary events such as the discovery of gold in Australia and the Crimean War induced some of Hearn's generation, most notably Cairnes, to tackle topical issues such as the effects of war and the influx of precious metals on prices. The existing economic state of Ireland was still, however, a priority for most contributors to the Dublin Statistical Society. It also should be noted that it was not until 1851 that the number of people requesting poor relief receded to pre-famine years. 10 This insight does not, of course, necessarily refute the Ricardian notion that rental charges on more fertile land will rise as, through time, less fertile land is brought into use. It merely contends that the rental charge for any given plot of land cannot rise beyond what is governed by the laws of demand and supply, since there is a field elsewhere for the employment of capital. It does imply, however, that rental charges on more fertile lands will only rise indefinitely (and hence rent as proportion of total income will only rise in the Ricardian fashion) if agents are forced to demand more infertile land due to the inadequate outlets for capital (and labour) elsewhere (see Gordon Citation1967 on this point). 11 Hearn rejected the other solutions that were being advocated around this time. The obvious solution of government-sponsored non-agricultural industries as an alternative channel for capital and labour was not in alignment with his laissez-faire belief in the natural evolution of industry within a market economy. The possibility of transforming the cottiers into peasant proprietors (which was Leslie and Mill's ultimate solution in the 1860s) was ruled out on the grounds that his iron rule of rent determination holds no matter whether the farmer is a cottier or proprietor. The then widely accepted view (by McCulloch, Senior and Mill) that the demand for land should be reduced via emigration was dismissed as impractical without sufficient explanation. 12 Walsh's brilliant prospects were handicapped by his religion. He was senior moderator in mathematics in 1847 and won the John Law mathematics prize in the following year, but as a Catholic he was precluded from competing for a TCD fellowship. His mentors obviously assisted him to get other posts, including a Barrington lectureship and the (non-fellowship) Whately Chair in 1851, but he was eventually forced to find work as an inspector of schools in Mauritius (Carlyle Citation1917). 13 My account of Hearn's years at Galway necessarily leans on Boylan and Foley (Citation1989, Citation1990), especially their account of Hearn's publications in the Galway Vindicator. 14 Hearn would have found himself in familiar company. Graduates of TCD who were prominent in the Victorian legal profession included: Sir William Stawell, George Higinbotham, Sir Robert Molesworthy, Sir Redmond Barry, Bindoon, Macoboy, H. J. Wrixen and R. Walsh. Other TCD men prominent in Victoria included: J. F. L. Foster, H. B. McCartney and Sir Francis Murphy. It is not surprising that so many of the Irish migrants to Victoria were of this class, as the majority of the destitute cottiers took the cheaper and shorter route to the United States (see Serle Citation1963: 49; Dixon Citation1902: 261–3). George Higinbotham, who was eventually the Chief Justice, is a typical example. He was born in the same year as Hearn; he was a contemporary at TCD (Higinbotham graduated in 1848, Hearn in 1847); like Hearn, he enrolled in Lincoln's Inn; and he migrated to Melbourne in 1853. He was also the editor of The Argus in 1855 to 1859, for which Hearn occasionally contributed. 15 Classes at the University of Melbourne began in 1855. Thus, since political economy was a third-year subject, I presume that it was first taught in 1857. 16 Robertson was yet another ex-Dublin resident (although he had been born in Scotland). He had been an apprentice to the book dealer-cum-publisher who handled the Dublin University Magazine, the famous organ of the Anglo-Irish intellectual elite, before migrating to Melbourne in 1852. 17 The opportunity cost element is captured in statements such as: ‘the determining principle of value [is] the cost of procuring a similar service’ (Hearn Citation1863: 322). 18 This section builds upon Moore (Citation2002, Citation2006), where the failure of Hearn's Plutology is discussed at length. 19 I would like to thank a referee for pointing this fact out to me.