Teorías económicas de los mercaderes ingleses de la Restauración: destrucción, reconstrucción y análisis de su legado textual = English Restoration merchants' economic theories: deconstructing, reconstructing and analyzing their textual legacy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18002/pec.v0i18.1646Keywords:
Doctrina económica, Tipo de interés, East India Company, Mercantilismo, Economic doctrine, Interest rate, MercantilistAbstract
En el pensamiento económico, lo mismo que sucede en los logros científicos, nadie es un ser aislado e independiente. De ahí que la inmensa mayoría de los autores se inspiren en las obras de sus antecesores para la creación de las suyas. Los descubrimientos de una generación exponen la experiencia y el conocimiento de la precedente. En este estudio nos centramos en el legado textual de Sir Josiah Child.
Child fue una figura destacada de su tiempo: hombre acaudalado, gobernador de la East India Company, testigo de excepción de las políticas gubernamentales y una figura controvertida de la escena política de finales del siglo XVII inglés. Podemos considerarlo un economista práctico. Con sus escritos podemos conocer muchos aspectos del escenario político que los produjo. Comparándolo con otros autores contemporáneos podemos conocer los factores que condujeron, con frecuencia de manera compleja, a la formulación de una ciencia económica.
Este artículo presenta nuestro análisis de la carrera y de los textos de Child con el fin de poder identificar las fuentes de las teorías childeanas. Su Brief Observations Concerning Trade, and Interest of Money se convirtió en un clásico temprano de la literatura económica. Nuestro objeto es trocear este texto. Con mucha frecuencia, la destrucción es el prólogo necesario de la reconstrucción, objetivo último y principal de la deconstrucción del texto de este mercader-economista.
In economic thought, no less than in scientific achievement, no man is an isolated being, and most writers lean heavily on their predecessors' writings in producing "new" works. The discoveries of one generation compound the experience and knowledge of those who have gone before. In the present study we are focusing on Sir Josiah Child's legacy.Child was a leading figure of his time: a wealthy man, governor of the East India Company, expert witness in the formulation of governmental policies, and a controversial figure in the political scene of the late seventeenth century in England. He can be considered as a "practical economist". From his writings we can learn much about the economic scene which produced them. By contrasting him with some others of his contemporaries we can learn something about the factors which led, in such complex ways, to the formulation of an economic science.
This paper consists of our analysis of Child’s writings and career trying to trace the sources of Child’s "theories". His Brief Observations Concerning Trade, and Interest of Money became an early classic of economic literature. Our target is putting this text into parts. Most of the times, destruction is a necessary prologue to reconstruction. The latter is our main purpose deconstructing Child's text.
Downloads
References
Airy, Osmund (Ed.) (1897-1900). Burnet's History of My Own Time (2 vols). Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.
The Allegations of the Turky Company and Others against the East-India- Company, Relating to the Management of that Trade: Presented to the Right Honourable the Lords of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council the 17th. of August, 1681. Together with the Answer of the said East- India-Company thereunto Delivered in Writing the 22nd. instant according to their Lordships Order, Upon which a Hearing was had before their Lordships the 24th. of the said Month. The East-India-Company's Answer. To the Right Honourable the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council.
Andrews, Charles M. (1908) British Committees, Commissions, and Councils of Trade and Plantations, 1622-1675. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.
Andrews, Charles M. (1934-38). The Colonial Period of American History (4 vols.). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ashley, W.J. (1900). Surveys, Historic and Economic. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Barbour, Violet (1954). Dutch and English Merchant Shipping in the Seventeenth Century. E.M. Carus-Wilson (Ed.) Essays in Economic History. London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.
[Blanch], John Blanel (sic) (1694). The Interest of England Considered. In An Essay upon Wool, our Woollen-Manufacturers, and the Improvement of Trade: With Some Remarks upon the Conceptions of Sir Josiah Child, By John Blanel. London: Printed for Walter Kettilby.
Blaug, Mark (Ed.) (1991). Later Mercantilists: Josiah Child (1603-1699) and John Locke (1632- 1704). Aldershot, Hants: Edward Elgar Publishing Company. Bodleian Library, Clarendon Mss., 75, f. 300.
Bourne, H.R. Fox (1886). English Merchants. Memoirs in Illustration of the Progress of British Commerce. London: Chatto and Windus.
Browning, Andrew (1944-1951). Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby and Duke of Leeds, 1632-1712 (3 vols.). Glasgow: Jackson, Son & Co.
Bryant, Arthur (1935). Samuel Pepys, The Year of Peril. Cambridge: At the University Press. Burnet
Gilbert (1823). Burnet's History of His own Time: With Supressed Passages of the First Volume, and Notes by Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, and Speaker Onslow, Hitherto Unpublished. To Which Are Added The Cursory Remarks of Swift, and Other Observations (6 vols.), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series (1650).
Calendar of Treasury Books, 1667-1668 (1668).
Calendar of Treasury Books, 1672-1675 (1673).
Chamberlayne, Edward (1694). Angliae Notitia: Or, the Present State of England: With Divers Remarks upon The Ancient State thereof. The Eighteenth Edition with great Additions and Improvements. London: Printed by T. Hodgkin, MDCXCIV.
C.[hild], J.[osiah] (1668). Brief Observations Concerning Trade, and Interest of Money, By J.C., Printed for Elizabeth Calvert at the Black-Spread-Eagle in Barbican, and Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the White-Heart in Westminster Hall.
[Child, Josiah] (1690). A Discourse about Trade, Wherein the Reduction of Interest of Money to 4 l. per Centum, is Recommended. Methods for the Employment and Maintenance of the Poor are Proposed. Several Weighty Points Relating to Companies of Merchants. The Act of Navigation. Naturalization of Strangers. Our Woolen Manufactures. The balance of Trade. And the Nature of Plantations, and their Consequences in Relation to the Kingdom, are seriously Discussed. And Some Arguments for Erecting a Court of Merchants for Determining Controversies, Relating to Maritime Affairs, and a Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debts, are humbly Offered. Never before Printed. Printed by A. Sowle, at the Crooked-Billet in Holloway- Lane: And Sold at the Three Keys in Nags-bead-Court, Grace-Church-Street.
Child, Josiah (1693). A New Discourse of Trade, Wherein is Recommended several weighty Points relating to Companies of Merchants, The Act of Navigation. Naturalization of Strangers. And our Woollen Manufacturers. The Balance of Trade. And the Nature of Plantations, and their Consequences in Relation to the Kingdom, are seriously Discussed. And some Proposals for erecting a Court of Merchants for determining Controversies, relating to Maritime Affairs, and for a Law for Transferrance of Bills of Debts are humbly Offered. London: Printed, and sold by John Everingham, at the Star in Ludgate-Street, in the Year 1693.
Child, Sir Josiah (1693). A Discourse Concerning the East-India Trade: Wherein is Shewed by Arguments taken from a Treatise Written by Sir Josiah Child (…) that the Said Trade May Be Carried On by A Regulated Company to Much Greater Advantage of the Publick than by A Company with a Joint-Stock. London: Printed for Richard Baldwin.
Davies, K.G. (1952). Joint-Stock Investment in the Later Seventeenth Century. The Economic History Review, IV, 283-301.
Davies, K.G. (1957). The Royal African Company. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
East, R. (ed.) (1891). Extracts from Records in the Possession of the Municipal Corporation of the Borough of Portsmouth and from Other Documents Relating Thereto. Portsmouth.
Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Report and Appendix (Part I) (1881).
Evelyn, John (2006). The Diary of John Evelyn. E.S. de Beer (Ed.). London: Everyman's Library.
Henning, Basil Duke (Ed.) (1940). The Parliamentary Diary of Sir Edward Dering, 1670-1673. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Historical Manuscripts Commission (1879). Seventh Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. London: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Historical Manuscripts Commission (1893). The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Portland, Preserved at Welbeck Abbey. London: Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
Historical Manuscripts Commission (1942). Supplementary Report on the Manuscripts of the Late Montagu Bertie Twelfth Earl of Lindsey Formerly Preserved at Uffington House. Stamford, Lincolnshire, A. D. 1660-1702. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office.
House of Lords Papers (1669).
Hunter, William Wilson (1900). A History of British India (2 vols.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co.
Journals of the House of Commons (1667; 1689).
Journals of the House of Lords (1669).
By the King (1681). A Proclamation for the Restraining All His Majesty's Subjects but the East-India- Company to Trade to the East Indies. London: Printed by the Assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, Printers to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty.
Lambe, Samuel (1657). Seasonal Observations Humbly Offered to His Highness the Lord Protector. London: Printed at the author's charge.
Letwin, William (1959). Sir Josiah Child, Merchant Economist, with a reprint of Brief Observations Concerning Trade and Interest of Money (1668). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Printing Office.
Luttrell, Narcissus (1857). A Brief Historical Relation of State Affaire from September 1678 to April 1714 (6 vols.). Oxford: At the University Press.
Macauley, Lord (1914). The History of England. From the Accession of James the Second (6 vols.).
Charles Harding Firth (Ed.). London: Macmillan and Co., Limited.
Manley, Thomas (1669). Usury at Six Per Cent Examined, and found unjustly charged by Sir T. Culpepper (sic) and J.C. with many crimes and oppressions, whereof 'tis altogether innocent. London.
North, Roger (1740). Examen: or An Enquiry into the Credit and Veracity of A Pretended Complete History; Shewing the Perverse and Wicked Design of It, and the Many Falsities and Abuses of Truth Contained in It. Together with Some Memoirs Occasionally Inserted. All Tending to Vindicate the Honour of the Late King Charles the Second, and His Happy Reign, from the Intended Aspersions of That Foul Pen. By the Honourable Roger North, Esq. London: Printed for Fletcher Gyles against Gray's – Inn Gate in Holborn, MDCCXL.
Papillon, A.F.W. (1887). Memoirs of Thomas Papillon, of London, Merchant. (1623-1702). Reading: Joseph J. Beecroft, Printer.
Papillon, Thomas (1696). A Treatise Concerning the East India Trade: Being A Most Profitable Trade to the Kingdom, And Best Secured and Improved by A Company and A Joint-Stock. Wrote at the Instance of Thomas Papillon, Esq.; And in his House, and Printed in the Year 1680. And now Reprinted for the better satisfaction of himself and Others. London: Printed in the Year MDCXCVI.
Pepys, Samuel (1906). The Diary of Samuel Pepys (2 vols.), Ernest Rhys (Ed.). London: J.M. Dent & Co.
Petty, William (1660). Reflections upon Some Persons and Things in Ireland, by Letters to and from Dr. Petty: With Sir Hierome Sankey's Speech in Parliament. London: Printed for John Martin, Jams Allestreye, and Thomas Dicas, and are to b sold at the Bell in St Pauls-Church-yard.
Petty, William (1662). A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. Shewing the Nature and Measures of Crown-Lands. Assessments Customs. Poll-money. Lotteries. Benevolence. Penalties. Monopolies. Offices. Tythes. Raising of Coins. Harth-money. Excize, & c. With Several Intersperst Discourses and Digressions concerning Warres. The Church Universities. Rents and Purchases. Usury and exchange. Banks and Lombards. Registries for Conveyances. Beggars. Ensurance. Exportation of Money. Wool. Free-Ports. Coins. Housing. Liberty of Conscience & c. The same being frequently applied to the present state and affairs of Ireland. London: Printed for N[athaniel] Brooke, at the Angel in Cornhill.
Philopatris (1681). A Treatise Wherein is Demonstrated, I. That the East- India Trade is the Most National of All Foreign Trades. II. That the Clamors, Aspersions, and Objections Made Against the present East-India Company, a Sinister, Selfish, or Groundless. III. That since the discovery of the East-Indies, the Dominion of the Sea depends much upon the Wane or Increase of that Trade, and consequently the Security of the Liberty, Property, and Protestant Religion of this Kingdom. IV. That the Trade of the East-Indies cannot be carried on to National advantage, in any other way than by a General Joint-Stock. V. That the East-India Trade is more profitable and necessary to the Kingdom of England, than to any other Kingdom or Nation in Europe. By Φιλοπάτριs. London: Printed by T.F. for Robert Boulter.
Philopatris [Benjamin Worsley] (1651). The Advocate: Or A Narrative of the State and Condition of Things Between the English and Dutch Nation in Relation to Trade… London: William Du- Gard.
Rawlinson Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, A 170, fols. 148-175.
Robbins, Caroline (Ed.) (1938). The Diary of John Milward, Esq., Member of Parliament for Derbyshire, September, 1666 to May, 1668. Cambridge: At the University Press.
Robinson, Henry (1641). Englands Safety. In Trades Encrease. Most humbly Presented to the High Court of Parliament by Henry Robinson, Gent. London: Printed by E.P. for Nicholas Bourne at the South Entrance.
Sainsbury, Ethel Bruce (1925). A Calendar of the Court Minutes, etc. of the East India Company, 1664-1667, with an Introduction and Notes by Sir William Foster. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.
Sainsbury, Ethel Bruce (1932). A Calendar of the Court Minutes, etc. of the East India Company, 1671-1673, Introduction and Notes by W.T. Ottewill. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.
Schumpeter, E.B. (1938). English Prices and Public Finance, 1660-1822. The Review of Economics and Statistics, XX, 21-37.
Schumpeter, Joseph (2003). Economic Doctrine and Method. London: Routledge.
Schumpeter, Joseph A. (1972). History of Economic Analysis. Elizabeth Body Schumpeter (Ed.). London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
Scott, William Robert (1910). The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint-Stock Companies to 1720 (2 vols.). Cambridge: At the University Press.
Temple, Sir William (1932). Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands, with an Introduction by G.N. Clarck. Cambridge: At the University Press.
Wilson, Charles (1978). Profit and Power: A Study of England and the Dutch Wars. The Hague: Martines Nijhoff.
Word, Alfred C. (1935). A History of the Levant Company. Oxford: University Press.
Yule, Henry (1888). The Diary of William Hedges, Esq. During His Agency in Bengal; as well as on His Voyage Out and Return Overland (1681-1687), 2 vols. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Juan Lanero Fernández
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Los autores que publican en esta revista están de acuerdo con los siguientes términos:- Los autores ceden de forma no exclusiva los derechos de explotación (reproducción, distribución, comunicación pública, transformación) a la Universidad de León, por lo que pueden establecer, por separado, acuerdos adicionales para la distribución no exclusiva de la versión de la obra publicada en la revista (por ejemplo, alojarlo en un repositorio institucional o publicarlo en un libro), con un reconocimiento de su publicación inicial en esta revista.
- Este trabajo se encuentra bajo la Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Puede consultarse desde aquí la versión informativa y el texto legal de la licencia.
- Se permite y se anima a los autores a difundir electrónicamente las versiones pre-print (versión antes de ser evaluada) y/o post-print (versión evaluada y aceptada para su publicación) de sus obras antes de su publicación, ya que favorece su circulación y difusión más temprana y con ello un posible aumento en su citación y alcance entre la comunidad académica.
