Table Of ContentTHE CASE OF IRELAND
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries have long been
seen as a foundational period for modern Irish political traditions
suchasnationalism,republicanismandunionism.TheCaseofIreland
offersafreshaccountofIreland’sneglectedroleinEuropeandebates
about commerce and empire in what was a global era of war and
revolution.Drawingonarangeofwritingsfrommerchants,agrarian
improvers, philosophers, politicians and revolutionaries across
Europe, this book shows how Ireland became a field of conflict and
projection between rival visions of politics in commercial society,
associatedwiththewarringempiresofBritainandFrance.Itoffersa
new perspective on the crisis and transformation of the British
Empire at theend ofthe eighteenth century, and restores Ireland to
itsrightful place atthe centre of European intellectual history.
studied history at Oxford and Cambridge, com-
pleting his doctoral research in . After postdoctoral work in
Oxford and Bielefeld he is now Assistant Professor of History at
Columbia University. He is a frequent commentator on contempo-
rary British and European politics for a range of outlets, and was
co-editor ofRenewal: AJournal ofSocial Democracy from –.
IDEAS IN CONTEXT
Edited by DAVID ARMITAGE, RICHARD BOURKE
and JENNIFER PITTS
Thebooksinthisserieswilldiscusstheemergenceofintellectualtraditionsandof
related new disciplines. The procedures, aims and vocabularies that were gener-
atedwillbesetinthecontextofthealternativesavailablewithinthecontemporary
frameworksofideasandinstitutions.Throughdetailedstudiesoftheevolutionof
such traditions, and their modification by different audiences, it is hoped that a
new picture willform of thedevelopment ofideas intheir concrete contexts. By
thismeans,artificialdistinctionsbetweenthehistoryofphilosophy,ofthevarious
sciences, of society and politics, and ofliterature maybe seen to dissolve.
Afulllistoftitlesintheseriescanbefoundat:www.cambridge.org/IdeasContext
THE CASE OF IRELAND
–
Commerce, Empire and the European Order,
JAMES STAFFORD
ColumbiaUniversity
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom
OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA
WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia
–,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India
PenangRoad,#-/,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/
:./
©JamesStafford
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
:Stafford,James,-author.
:ThecaseofIreland:commerce,empireandtheEuropeanorder,-/JamesStafford,
ColumbiaUniversity,NewYork.
:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,.|
:Ideasincontext|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
:(print)|(ebook)|
(hardback)|(paperback)|(epub)
:LCSH:Ireland–Commerce–History–thcentury.|Ireland–Commerce–History–th
century.|Ireland–Economicconditions–thcentury.|Ireland–Economicconditions–thcen-
tury.|GreatBritain–Foreignrelations–thcentury.|GreatBritain–Foreignrelations–th
century.|BISAC:POLITICALSCIENCE/History&Theory
:.(print)|(ebook)|./
–dcundefined
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/
----Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
For Clara
v
Contents
Acknowledgements page ix
Introduction
AnAgeofCrisis
TheBritishEmpireinEurope
Conquest,LibertyandAristocracy
VisionsofCommercialSociety
TheCaseofIreland
The Enlightenment Critique of Empire in Ireland,
c. –
ConquestandColonisation,–
TheCaseofIrelandandtheWoollenControversy
TheDeclaratoryAct()andthePenalLaws(–)
‘Improvement’andtheCatholicQuestion
Montesquieu,Hume,SmithandTuckeronIrelandand
‘JealousyofTrade’
Smith,YoungandthePoliticalEconomyofAnglo-Irish
Ascendancy
RegeneratingEmpire
Commerce without Empire? ‘Free Trade’ and ‘Legislative
Independence’, –
Molyneux’sCaseandthe‘FriendsofAmerica’
CommerceandtheBalanceofPower
FreePortsandProtectingDuties
From‘FoederalUnion’toCommercialPropositions
Sugar,ManufacturesandtheRevisionofthePropositions
TheIrishDebateontheRevisedPropositions
JosiahTuckeronIrelandandtheSlaveTrade
ARevolutioninRetrospect
vii
viii Contents
Property, Revolution and Peace, –
‘ARankamongthePrimaryNationsoftheEarth’
War,EmpireandSlavery
ArthurO’Connorandthe‘NaturalProgressofOpulence’
IrelandandFrenchEmpire
RivalUniversalisms
Enlightenment against Revolution: Commerce, Aristocracy
and the Case for Union, –
AnEmpireDivided
Faction,ReligionandAristocracy
PovertyandDisaffection
JohnFosterandThomasBrookeClarkeonCommerceand‘Feudalism’
WilliamDrennanandtheRadicalCritiqueofUnion
FriedrichGentzonUnionandtheBalanceofPower
The‘SystemofBurkism’?
The Granary of Great Britain: War, Population
and Agriculture –
CurrencyandCapital
GrainandEmancipation
IrelandandtheContinentalSystem
DependencyandEmpire
RobertMalthus,EdwardWakefieldandthePoliticsofthePotato
TheMakingofanOrthodoxy
Democracy, Nationality and the Social Question,
–
TheBritishEconomistsandthe‘CottageSystem’
PropertyandtheSocialQuestion
GustavedeBeaumont,IrelandandtheFutureofDemocracy
YoungIrelandandthePoliticalEconomyof‘Nationality’
JamesFintanLalorandJohnStuartMillonFamineandRevolution
TheLegaciesofRevolution
Conclusion: Ireland between Empires
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
This book is based on a doctoral thesis written at the University of
Cambridge, supported by a Doctoral Award from the UK Arts and
Humanities Research Council. I am additionally grateful to Emmanuel
College, University of Cambridge; the Kurt Hahn Trust; and the
Cambridge University History Faculty Doctoral Language Fund for their
support, which allowed me to take language learning courses in Besançon
andMunich. TheBritishAssociation ofIrish Studies,theHistoryFaculty
attheUniversityofCambridge,andEmmanuelCollegeofferedgrantsthat
enabled me to conduct archival research in Belfast and Dublin.
Iconductedadditionalresearchandrevisedthemanuscriptforpublication
as a postdoctoral fellow at the German Federal Research Council (DFG)–
fundedResearchTrainingGroupGRK/‘WorldPolitics’,hostedat
Bielefeld University.
I would like to extend my thanks to staff at the Cambridge University
Library, the Marshall Economics Library, the British Library, the
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the National Library of Ireland, the Royal
Irish Academy, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland and the
Manuscripts Room at the National Library of Ireland for their assistance.
John Robertson first suggested the Free Trade crisis and Pitt’s
CommercialPropositionstomeasapossiblesubjectfordoctoralresearch.
He has been a consistently inspiring and reassuring presence throughout
the long years this book has taken to complete. Different aspects of the
book have also benefitted from conversations over many years with István
Hont (who supervised this research from until his death in ),
Richard Bourke, Joanna Innes, Richard Whatmore, Ian McBride, Tom
Pye, Lucian Robinson, Matthew Ward, Anna Plassart, Clara Maier, Peter
HessionandMichaelSonenscher.Iamalsogratefultothetwoanonymous
readerswhoproducedreportsonthemanuscriptforCambridgeUniversity
Press, and to Liz Friend-Smith and Melissa Ward for their patience and
support throughout its production, editing and revision.
ix
