Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T11:27:59.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

E. F. SCHUMACHER AND THE MAKING OF “BUDDHIST ECONOMICS,” 1950 – 1973

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2019

Robert Leonard
Robert Leonard*
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Until around 1950, the German émigré Ernst Friedrich Schumacher (1911–1977) was a relatively conventional economist, believing in progress based on economic growth and developments in science and technology. Then, as he turned forty, he went through a period of prolonged self-examination and spiritual quest, which, amongst other things, led him to become critical of Western modernity. Developing a great interest in Buddhist spirituality and culture, in 1955 he travelled to Burma, where he spent three months as a United Nations consultant. His encounter there with the encroachment of Western development upon a traditional society proved pivotal for him, confirming his skepticism about modernity and stimulating him to write a renegade essay, “Economics in a Buddhist Country.” This experience in Burma shaped his work thereafter, as contributor to debates on development both East and West, as promoter of intermediate technology, and as author of the prophetic, popular book of 1973 Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 159 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This paper grew out of my presidential address to the History of Economics Society at Michigan State University in June 2015. For discussion of various parts of it, I am grateful to Alessandro Barattieri, Abhay Ghiara, Viviana Di Giovinazzo, and Filippo Sabetti, as well as to participants at the History of Recent Economics (Cergy-Pontoise, 2013), 18th International Conference on Cultural Economics (Montreal 2014); History of Economics Society meetings at Duke (2016) and Toronto (2017); the History of Political Economy conference on the history of development economics, Duke University, April 2017; and the Mercatus Center seminar, George Mason University, November 2017. For helpful comments on the final paper, I am grateful to two anonymous referees for this journal. For their kind hospitality, assistance with archival material, and discussions of Schumacher, I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Barbara Wood, London, and both Susan Witt (Director) and Amelia Holmes (Librarian) of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, Gt. Barrington, MA. I thank Brihas Sarathy of the Pariyatti organization and Vreni Schumacher of Llampeter, Wales, for her kindness and for discussions of her late husband’s life and work. Finally, I thank the Schumacher Center for permission to quote from, and reproduce, archival material.

References

REFERENCES

Balfour, Eve. 1948. The Living Soil: Evidence of the Importance to Human Health of Soil Vitality, with Special Reference to National Planning. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Beer, Bettina. 2007. “Gulle Pfeffer Kell.” In Frauen in der deutschsprachigen Ethnologie: ein Handbuch. Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau Verlag, pp. 163–165.Google Scholar
Bennett, John G. [1948] 1951. The Crisis in Human Affairs. New York: Hermitage House.Google Scholar
Bennett, John G. 1974. Witness: The Autobiography of John G. Bennett. Tucson: Omen Press.Google Scholar
Bright-Paul, Anthony. [1965] 2005. Stairway to Subud. Undiscovered Worlds Press. Online: http://www.undiscoveredworldspress.com/. Accessed 11 January 2019.Google Scholar
Coleman, John E. 1971. The Quiet Mind. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Collis, Maurice. 1938. Trials in Burma. Middlesex: Penguin.Google Scholar
Collis, Maurice. 1952. The Journey Outward: An Autobiography. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Collis, Maurice. 1953. Into Hidden Burma: An Autobiography. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Conford, Philip. 2001. The Origins of the Organic Movement. Edinburgh: Floris Books.Google Scholar
Conze, Edward. 1951. Buddhism. Its Essence and Development. Oxford: Bruno Cassirer.Google Scholar
Conze, Edward. 1956. Buddhist Meditation. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Conze, Edward. 1979. Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic. Sherborne: Samizdat Publishing.Google Scholar
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. 1912. Art and Swadeshi. Madras: Ganesh & Co.Google Scholar
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. 1956. Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism. Bombay: Asia Publishing House.Google Scholar
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., and Horner, Isaline Blew. 1948. The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
De Jong, Jan Willem. 1980. “Edward Conze, 1904–1979.” Indo-Iranian Journal 22 (2): 143–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evola, Julius. 1951. The Doctrine of Awakening: A Study in the Buddhist Ascesis. London: Luzac.Google Scholar
Gill, Erin. 2010. “Lady Eve Balfour and the British Organic Food and Farming Movement.” Unpublished PhD diss., Dept. of History and Welsh History, Aberystwyth University.Google Scholar
Government of Burma. 1954a. Burma. A Handbook on Burma with Special Reference to Burmese Customs, Culture, History, Economic Resources, Education, Famous Pagodas and Cities. Published on the occasion of the Chatta Sangayana (Sixth Buddhist Synod).Google Scholar
Government of Burma. 1954b. Pyidawtha. The New Burma. A Report from the Government to the People of the Union Burma on Our Long-term Plan for Economic and Social Development.Google Scholar
Gregg, Richard B. [1952] 1957. Which Way Lies Hope? An Examination of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism and Gandhiji’s Programme. Revised, expanded edition of the 1952 original. Ahmedabad: Navajivan.Google Scholar
Gregg, Richard B. 1958. A Philosophy of Indian Economic Development. Ahmedabad: Navajivan.Google Scholar
Guénon, René. 1942. The Crisis of the Modern World. London: Luzac & Co.Google Scholar
Guénon, René. 1953. The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times. English translation by Lord Northbourne of the 1943 French original. London: Luzac & Co.Google Scholar
Hall, H. Fielding. 1903. The Soul of a People. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hession, Charles H. 1986. “E. F. Schumacher as Heir to Keynes’ Mantle.” Review of Social Economy 44, 1 (April): 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, Sir Albert. 1935. Manufacture of Humus by the Indore Process. London: Royal Society of Arts.Google Scholar
Howard, Sir Albert. 1940. An Agricultural Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, Bob. 2000. “Combining Good and Truth, Now: An Homage to Dr. Maurice Nicoll.” Gurdjieff International Review III (2). www.gurdjieff.org/hunter1.htm. Accessed 20 December 2018.Google Scholar
Iyer, K. Bharatha, ed. 1947. Art and Thought: Issued in Honour of Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday. London: Luzac & Co.Google Scholar
Jung, Carl. 1947. “On the Psychology of Eastern Meditation.” Translation of 1943. “Zur Psychologie Ostlicher Meditation.” Mitteilungen der schweizerischen Gesellschaft der Freunde ostastatischer Kultur. In Iyer, Bharatha, ed., Art and Thought: Issued in Honour of Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday. London: Luzac & Co., pp. 169–179.Google Scholar
Jung, Carl. 1973. C. G. Jung Letters. Volume 1, 1906–1950. Selected and edited by Gerhard Adler, in collaboration with Aniela Jaffe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kappen, Tippetts, Abbet, McCarthy Engineers. 1953. Economic and Engineering Development of Burma. Prepared for the Government of the Union of Burma. Volumes I and II, co-authored with Pierce Management Inc. and Robert R. Nathan Associates, Inc.Google Scholar
Khin, U Ba. 1952. What Buddhism Is. Three lectures from Sept.–Oct. 1951. Rangoon: Vipassana Research Association.Google Scholar
King, Franklin Hiram. [1911] 1926. Farmers of Forty Centuries. London: Cape.Google Scholar
King, Winston L. 1964. A Thousand Lives Away: Buddhism in Contemporary Burma. Foreword by Edward Conze. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Krauskopf, Georg. 1949. Die Heilslehre des Buddha. Rheinfelden: Beyerlein & Steinschulte.Google Scholar
Kumarappa, Joseph Chelladurai. 1958. Economy of Permanence. Fourth edition. Rajghat, Kashi: Sarva-Seva-Sangh-Publication.Google Scholar
Leonard, Robert. 2018. “E. F. Schumacher and Intermediate Technology,” in “The Political Economy of Development Economics: A Historical Perspective,” edited by Alacevich, Michele and Boianovsky, Mauro. Special issue, History of Political Economy 50: 249–265.Google Scholar
Leonard, Robert. n.d. “Tools, Machines and Metaphysics: E. F. Schumacher and the Idea of Intermediate Technology, 1950–1977.” Working paper.Google Scholar
Lewis, Norman. 1954. Golden Earth: Travels in Burma. London: Readers Union.Google Scholar
Lipsey, Roger. 1977. Coomaraswamy: His Life and Work. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
McCarrison, Robert. 1944. Nutrition and National Health. London: Faber.Google Scholar
Massingham, Harold John. 1945. The Natural Order: Essays in the Return to Husbandry. London: Dent & Sons.Google Scholar
Massingham, Harold John. 1953. Prophecy of Famine: A Warning and a Remedy. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Nicoll, Maurice. 1950. The New Man: An Interpretation of Some Parables and Miracles of Christ. London: Stuart and Richards.Google Scholar
Nicoll, Maurice. 1954. Ich Bin Der Weg. Die Deutung Einiger Gleichnisse und Wunder Christi. Translation by Edith and Ernst Friedrich Schumacher of Maurice Nicoll, The New Man: An Interpretation of Some Parables and Miracles of Christ. Hamburg: Sten-Verlag.Google Scholar
Nicoll, Maurice. 1957. Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky. London: Vincent Stuart.Google Scholar
Northbourne, Lord. 1940. Look to the Land. London: J. M. Dent.Google Scholar
Nottingham, Elizabeth K. 1960. “Buddhist Meditation in Burma.” A paper read at Harvard to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Nov. 1958. Rangoon: International Meditation Centre.Google Scholar
Ouspensky, Piotr. 1947. In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ouspensky, Piotr. 1951. The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Pogson, Beryl. 1961. Maurice Nicoll: A Portrait . New York: Nelson.Google Scholar
Robertson, C. Harcourt. 1949. Burmese Vignettes. 24 Sketches of Burmese Life and Character. London: Luzac.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1959. “Economics in a Buddhist Country.” In Jaya Prakash Narayan, A Plea for Reconstruction of Indian Polity. Varanasi, Wardha: A. B. Sarva Seva Sangh, Appendix A, pp. 81–88.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1962. The Roots of Economic Growth. Varanasi: Gandhian Institute of Studies.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1963. “Economism: Reviews of Robert L. Heilbroner The Making of Economic Society and The Great Ascent .” Commentary (July): 81–83.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1965. “Buddhist Economics.” In Wint, Guy, ed., Asia: A Handbook. London: Anthony Blond, pp. 695–701.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1971. “Industrialization through ‘Intermediate Technology.’” In Robinson, Ronald, ed., Developing the Third World: The Experience of the Nineteen-Sixties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 85–93.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1973. Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered. London: Blond & Briggs.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1978. “Small Is Beautiful.” In Hoda, M. M., ed., Future Is Manageable: Schumacher’s Observations on Non-Violent Economics and Technology With a Human Face. New Delhi: Impex. pp. 14–29.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1977a. Interview by Kalpana Sharma, editor of Himmat, India, September 3, 1977. Transcript in SPGB, Box 3, Folder 1.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich. 1977b. A Guide for the Perplexed. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Mark. 2004. Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the 20th Century. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toye, John. 2011. “The World Improvement Plans of Fritz Schumacher.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 36 (2): 387–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Union Buddhist Sasana Council. 1956. The Chattha Sangayana Souvenir Album. Yegu, Rangoon: Union Buddhist Sasana Council Press.Google Scholar
Van Sommers, Raymond. 2003. A Life in Subud. Northbridge, Australia: Dawn Books.Google Scholar
Vipassana Association. 1960–61. Introduction to the International Meditation Centre. Pamphlet No. 1. Rangoon: Vipassana Association.Google Scholar
Walinsky, Louis J. 1962. Economic Development in Burma, 1951–1960. New York: Twentieth Century Fund.Google Scholar
Weber, Thomas. 1999. “Gandhi, Deep Ecology, Peace Research and Buddhist Economics.” Journal of Peace Research 36 (3): 349–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Thomas. 2004. Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weeraratna, Senaka. 2010. “Spread of Buddhism in Germany.” Lanka Daily News, November 15. The Buddhist Channel TV, www.buddhistchannel.tv. Accessed 12 February 2017.Google Scholar
Wood, Barbara. 1984. E. F. Schumacher. His Life and Thought. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Wrench, Guy T. 1938. The Wheel of Health. London: C. W. Daniel.Google Scholar
Wrench, Guy T. 1946. Reconstruction by Way of the Soil. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Zsebenyi, Ericm. 2004. “The Perfection of Wisdom.” Tricycle (Fall).Google Scholar