During the era of Mercantilism, when England was deep in the throes of colonization, there lived an Anglican minister by the name of Johnathan Swift. Swift was a master satirical author and a political pamphleteer. He penned an essay in 1729 proposing an economic solution to poverty in Ireland. He named it "A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick" commonly referred to as "A Modest Proposal." Within this essay, he satirically made the proposal to sell the poor children as food for the English. Swift's central point is that the English policies are figuratively killing the babies for their own selfish desires because the economic conditions that England is inflicting are forcing the Irish into poverty.
As I have previously mentioned, England was under Merchanitilsm policies, so English noblemen for years were colonizing Ireland. A sad side effect of colonization is that the colonized people's quality of life was often diminished. England's focus was on the benefit the colonies could be to the British government, not the benefit of the people they were ruling over. "A Modest Proposal" is Swift's criticism of the British rule over Ireland. The neglect from the ruling class produced conditions of intense poverty, and Swift had compassion on them. Swift describes the scene in Ireland as "crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms" (Swift 1). Here he uses the imagery of a female beggar and many children to explain that the many Irish children were starving. He brings up horrible literary images to establish compassion for the Irish. Swift then begins to act as though he makes a rational policy plan that seems logical. However, his proposal is to take all the poor children and sell them for food. His plan is abstract and cut off from human emotion, it is not moral, but that is his goal. Swift presents a savage plan in a moral way as satire. His whole essay is based on a joke that the English are devouring the Irish economically with the colonization and debt of the Landlords.
Jonathan Swift's essay is full of condescending criticism of the English monarchy and government disguised as an economic plan to end poverty. Although "A Modest Proposal" is shocking it is truly an interesting read.
Beyond the deafening satire, Swift does present a few suggestions to end poverty, such as "parsimony" and "prudence" (5). The landlords were taxing the Irish peasants to pay off their debts, so the Irish were not able to provide for their own families. Swift suggests that the landlords steward their money better with prudence and parsimony so that they are not taxing the Irish to pay their debts. Swift also suggests that the English learn to "love our country." Here, Swift notes that England is not treating Ireland and its citizens like their own. This could be due to the religious differences between Catholic Ireland and Protestant England.
Nonetheless, he is proposing this to encourage moral compassion for Ireland. Finally, he proposes that his readers to "a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shopkeepers" (Swift 5). The suggestion here is to build up the skills of the citizens so they can establish trade of their own. Furthermore, he suggests that England buy from them to build up their economy and dimmish the prevailing poverty. Less than 50 years after this was written, Adam Smith presented a new concept on wealth in his famous book "The Wealth of Nations." He proposes that the wealth of a nation is not just gold and silver but is more about sustainable commodities that befit the lives of the people. Smith proposes that if the citizens are wealthy, the nation will be wealthy. This is the same concept we see here in Swift's writing when he encourages the English government to better support the Irish colony.
During my reading of Swift's essay, I found myself feeling like I was in the classroom building, room 228, on Friday morning listening to Dr.Baugus speak about economics. It was a bit of a paradoxical moment. I, however, concluded that I was not, in fact, in my economic lecture but instead seeing what Dr.Baugus has been trying to show us all year, that economics is simply everywhere! Swift's essay undeniably discusses economic principles, although his central message is about the moral issue of poverty. This highlights how economics was initially seen as a branch of moral philosophy. Throughout this semester, I truly have seen that the principles of economics are in our everyday life all around us. Through reading this blog, I hope that you have been able to see the crossroads of great literature and economics through this obscure satirical essay.
Work Cited
Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. A Modest Proposal. Champaign, Ill. :Project Gutenberg, 1997