A Treatise on the Industry of Nations: Or, The Principles of National Economy and Taxation

by Joseph Salway Eisdell

Overview

In this two-volume work, originally published in 1839, the relatively unknown Joseph Salway Eisdell (1791–1876) explores the political economy of 1830s Britain from a different standpoint from that of many of his contemporaries. Influenced by Adam Smith and Michael Thomas Sadler, and in concordance with his contemporary, Irish economist Mountifort Longfield (1802–84), Eisdell's focus on 'fiscal sociology' places emphasis on industrial workers and the significance of human nature in economics. He reassesses economic and population trends by rejecting the (until then) well-regarded Malthusian principles. In many ways this work is a reflection of 1830s Victorian society, which was experiencing massive shifts towards industrialisation, urbanisation and modernisation, with accompanying political changes. Eisdell's later work, An Essay on the Causes and Remedies of Poverty (1852) demonstrates his continued enthusiasm for fiscal sociology. Volume 2 focuses on distribution, the rewards of labour and taxation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108036924
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/24/2011
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - British and Irish History, 19th Century
Pages:	444
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

Table of Contents

Book II. Distribution: 1. Of the rent of land; 2. Of the profits of stock; 3. On the rewards of labour; Book III. Consumption: 1. On consumption; 2. On the accumulation of property; Book IV. Taxation: 1. On the effects of taxation; 2. On the parties upon whom taxation ultimately falls; 3. On the rule for the apportionment of taxation; 4. On the application of the rule of apportionment, as regards the expense of protection; 5. On an apportionment of taxation according to the benefits derived from government; 6. On a tax on the value of property; 7. On the effects of indirect taxation; 8. On direct taxation; 9. On the distribution of the expense of constructing and maintaining roads, bridges, canals, harbours, light-houses, and other guides and protections to navigation; 10. On the distribution of the expenses of public institutions for education, religious worship, and the support of the poor; 11. On public debts.