The Two Nations -- A Financial Study of English History

268 Pages·1937·3.981 MB·English

by  Christopher Hollis

THE TWO NATIONS

THE
TWO NATIONS
A FINANCIAL STUDY
OF ENGLISH HISTORY
By
CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS
Author of " The Bl'eakdown of Money", etc.
I
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LTD.
BROADWAY HOUSE: 68-74 CARTER LANE, E.C.
1937
First Published 1935
1937
MadeandPrimedin GreatBritainby
PERCY LUND. HUMPHRIES f!:1 co. LTD.
U BetQordSquare,Landon.W.e.I
and atBraqford
THE TWO NATIONS
" Say what you like, our Queen reigns over the greatest
nation that ever existed."
"Which nation? " asked the young stranger, "for she
reigns over two ... two nations; between whom there is
no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of
each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were
dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different
planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed
by a different food, are ordered by different manners and
are not governed by the same laws."
" You speak of-" said Egremont hesitatingly.
"THE RICH AND THl': POOR."
Disraeli's Sybil, Book ii, Chapter 5.
v

TO R. McNAIR WILSON
My dear Wilson,
Our minds move so much along the same paths, so large
is the debt that I owe to you for having brought me to
those paths that it is but fitting that I should offer you
the dedication of this work.
The footnotes give the authorities for the statistics
and for the quotations which appear in the text. From
the text, too, it will, I think, be sufficiently clear who
are the writers of the past by whose teaching I have been
led to my conclusions. Among living writers in this, as
in all that I have ever written, I gratefully recognize
the debt which I owe to Mr. G. K. Chesterton-a debt
so large that, in accordance with the best traditions of
international finance, I intend never to repay it. This
is a very different book from any book that Mr. Chesterton
would himself write. But it will not have been without
its value if it serves to show-what Mr. Chesterton's own
brilliance and wit have sometimes concealed-that the
dullest and driest of statistics are often clamorous upon his
side. It is worth while being dull if by doing so one can
prove to the British public that Mr. Chesterton, when he
is brilliant, is also right.
I am under obligation, too, to many others-to some who
had no notion that, when they were talking to me, they
were helping me to write a book. But in particular I
should like to mention, and to recommend to those who
have not come across it, A Main Cause of Unemployment,
by Mr. P. C. Loftus, M.P. When I consulted Mr. Loftus
on a point, his modesty caused him to say that he owed
his own theories to Holsinger's Mystery of the Trade De
pression, but, if it was so, I can only reply as Voltaire
replied to the quip that Homer wrote Virgil. If Holsinger
wrote Loftus, it was his best work.
Finally I should like to thank Lord Oxford and Mr.
Douglas Woodruff for revising the proofs and my wife for
performing the thankless task of making an index.
CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS.
vii

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE MEDIEVAL MANAGED CURRENCY AND
ITS CoLLAPSE I
II. THE FAILURE OF THE STUARTS • 12
Ill. THE ORANGE 28
IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE PROGRESSIVE LEGEND 35
V. BISHOP BERKELEY 53
VI. THE AMERICANS AND THE WHIGS 65
VII. THE FIRST BREAKDOWN 74
VIII. UNNECESSARY POVERTY 85
IX. CHEQUES AND NOTES 103
X. THE REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS II3
XI. THE FIRST REVOLTS 125
XII. THE TURN OF THE TIDE . 141
XIII. THE EXCEPTIONAL AUXILIARY 154
XIV. DISRAELI'S RULE 165
XV. IRELAND. 179
XVI. MACHINE RUNNING DOWN 186
X VII. AMERICA 200
XVIII. THE 1920'S 221
XIX. CRISIS AND THE COUNTER ATTACK 234
EPILOGUE 250
INDEX 255
Ut