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Capitalism, war and internationalism in the thought of Richard Cobden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Peter Cain
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Extract

Since twentieth century society has been so badly scarred by wars between the major industrial powers it is difficult to understand how it was that capitalist industry was once held to be the great material and moral force which would bring peace to the world. The idea was, nonetheless, firmly implanted in the minds of many men in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Richard Cobden, the English radical politician, was one of these and the eradication of international conflict became the central concern of his life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , October 1979 , pp. 229 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1979

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References

page 229 note 1 I should like to thank Dr. J. R. B. Johnson and Prof. T. W. Hutchison for theii very-helpful comments on an earlier draft of the article.

page 229 note 2 Amongst modern writers, O. McDonagh in 'The Anti-Imperialism of Free Trade', Economic History Review, 2nd Series, xiv (1961–2), pp. 489–501, treats Gobden as a serious thinker. J. R. Vincent alludes to Gobden's ”coherent interpretation of the world and its history” but does not develop this far. The Formation of the British Liberal Party 1857–68 (London, 1966), pp. 31–4. In this context, the best of the older accounts are by Sir Louis Mallet. See the essay in his book Free Exchange (London, 1891) and his introduction to the 1878 one volume edition of Gobden's Political Writings. I have also found extremely useful Read's, D.Cobden and Bright: A Victorian Political Partnership (London, 1967)Google Scholar, and Jordan, H. D.‘The Case of Richard Gobden’, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 83 (1971), pp. 34–45.Google Scholar

page 230 note 1 John Stevas, N. St. (ed.), The Collected Works of Walter Bagehot (London, 1968), iii, pp. 296–7.Google Scholar Bagehot also speaks of ”an original stress of speculation, an innate energy of thought.”

page 230 note 2 Spencer, H., Principles of Sociology, ii (London, 1902. ed.), pp. 568–642.Google Scholar

page 230 note 3 The moral context within which classical economic thought took place is being increasingly stressed in modern scholarship as. is apparent from the interest taken in Adam Smith's hitherto neglected work The Theory of Moral Sentiments first published in 1759. For the relationship between this and the more famous Wealth of Nations see, for example, Taylor, O. H., Economics and Liberalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), pp. 87–99;Google ScholarAnspach, R., ‘The Implications of the Theory of Moral Sentiments for Adam Smith's Economic Thought', History of Economic Thought (1972) pp. 176–216;Google ScholarMcFie, A., The Individual in Society—Papers on Adam Smith (London, 1967)Google Scholar, Gh. 4. Smith was very much Gobden's intellectual mentor.

page 231 note 1 Theories of perfect competition in economics are based upon very similar assumptions.

page 231 note 2 Veblen, T., Essays in Our Changing Order (New York, 1954), p. 217.Google Scholar For the description of this ideal I am indebted to Peel, J. Y. D., Herbert Spencer the Evolution of a Sociologist (London, 1971)Google Scholar, Gh. 8 esp. pp. 214–23, and Fielden, K., ‘Samuel Smiles and Self-Help’, in Victorian Studies, xxi (1968-1969), pp. 155–76.Google Scholar

page 231 note 3 Morley, J., The Life of Richard Cobden, i (London, 1881)Google Scholar, Ghs. 1 & 2; McGilchrist, R., Richard Cobden, The Apostle of Free Trade (London, 1865)Google Scholar, Gh. I.

page 231 note 4 The Political Writings of Richard Gobden, i (London, 1868), p. 139: There is a trace of nostalgia for the old domestic system in an Address of the Anti-Corn Law League of 1838 with which Cobden's name was associated and which asserted that ”with a free untaxed trade in corn, the muslin, gingham and calico weavers may again ply his industry at home amid his own happy and contented family”. Watkin, E. W., Alderman Cobden of Manchester (1891), pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

page 232 note 1 Sraffa, P. (ed.), The Works of David Ricardo i (London, 1951), p. 133–134.Google Scholar

page 233 note 1 G. Combe, The Constitution of Man (8th ed., Edinburgh, 1847), esp. pp. 125–6, 3O2f. This book and the Wealth of Nations were probably the two biggest intellectual influences on Gobden in his youth. In a speech in 1844 Cobden claimed that there was ”but one test for the future greatness of Manchester” and that was not the accumulation of wealth but ”the development of wealth in mental resources” and ”moral and intellectual development”, without which ”the expanse of houses and mills will be to the odium rather than the honour of Manchester”. Watkin, p. 136. cf. Morley, op. cit. i, p. 119.

page 233 note 2 Morley, op. cit. i, p. 89.

page 233 note 3 Pol. Writings, op. cit. pp. 42–3.

page 234 note 1 Ibid. p. 45.

page 234 note 2 Ibid. pp. 139–51. At this time Gobden was still advocating a small fixed revenue duty on imported corn, an 'error' soon recanted.

page 234 note 3 Ibid. p. 150.

page 234 note 4 Ibid. p. 140.

page 235 note 1 Ibid. p. 190.

page 235 note 2 Ibid. p. 45.

page 235 note 3 See Gleason, J. H., The Genesis of Russophobia in Great Britain (Harvard, 1950).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 235 note 4 Pol. Writings, op. cit. p. 9

page 236 note 1 Ibid. p. 170.

page 236 note 2 Ibid. pp. 33–34. Cobden's feeling for the relationship between morality on the one hand and freedom and happiness on the other is clearly brought out in his attitude to the Polish question. He deplored the Russian conquest of Poland but he put the blame for it firmly at the door of the latter's ”wicked ill-governed and licentious militarism” which had weakened the country morally, and therefore, physically. He goes on to say that ”the fate of Poland was but a triumph of justice, without which history would have conveyed no moral for the benefit of posterity”. Ibid. pp. 255–6. But it must be noted that his argument that Russian domination of Turkey and Poland would benefit the latter ran counter to his belief that England ought to abstain from interference in the affairs of others because she could not know what was good for them.

page 236 note 3 Ibid. p. 195.

page 236 note 4 Ibid. p. 13.

page 236 note 5 Ibid. pp. 12–14. Grampp, W. D. in The Manchester School of Economics (London, pp. 22–3Google Scholar argues that Ricardo may have been the source of this idea. It is however also argued i n a very similar way to Cobden's in Mill, James, in Commerce Defended, (1808) Ch. 1.Google Scholar

page 237 note 1 Ibid. p. 16.

page 237 note 2 Ibid. p. 287. cf Josiah Tucker, The Casefor Going to War for the Sake of Trade… (1764) p. 82, for a strikingly similar assertion.

page 237 note 3 Ibid. p. 18 of.

page 237 note 4 Ibid. pp. 335–6

page 238 note 1 Ibid. p. 48.

page 238 note 2 Ibid. p. 75.

page 238 note 3 Cobden's admiration for the U.S.A. and his feeling for its latent strength remained throughout his life. See Cowley, E. H., The American Diaries of Richard Cobden (Princeton, 1952)Google Scholar, esp. pp. 23, 33–34 and 70–4.

page 238 note 4 Pol. Writings, op. cit. p. 12 if.

page 238 note 5 Ibid. p. 100. He argued, for example, that another war would give the Americans the opportunity to capture our carrying trade. Ibid. p. 327.

page 238 note 6 Ibid. pp. 282–3.

page 239 note 1 Ibid. p. 43.

page 239 note 2 Sir Mallett, L., Free Exchange (London, 1891), pp. 20f.Google Scholar

page 239 note 3 Jordan, H. D., ‘Richard Cobden and Penny Postage: A Note on the Processes of Reform’, Victorian Studies, viii (1965), pp. 355–60.Google Scholar

page 239 note 4 Bright, J. and Thorold Rogers, J. E. (eds.),Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by Richard Cobden M.P., i (London, 1870), pp. 77–8Google Scholar, 115.

page 239 note 5 Morley, i, op. cit. p. 126.

page 240 note 1 Schwabe, S., Reminiscences of Richard Cobden (London, 1895), p. viii.Google Scholar

page 240 note 2 Morley, i, op. cit. p. 230.

page 240 note 3 Speeches, i, op. cit. pp. 362–3; Cf. pp. 79, 385, 391–2.

page 240 note 4 Hobson, J. A., Richard Cobden, The International Man (London, 1919; 1968), p. 246.Google Scholar

page 241 note 1 Grampp calls Cobden a pacifist (op. cit. pp. 100—2), but Gobden always insisted that Britain had a right and a duty to defend herself against aggression. Speeches, ii, op. cit. pp. 433–4.

page 241 note 2 Speeches, i, op. cit. esp. pp. 473–514; W. N. Calkins, 'A Victorian Free Trade Lobby', Economic History Review, xiii (1960—1), pp. 90—104.

page 241 note 3 Henderson, E. B., ‘The Pacifists of the Fifties’, Journal of Modern History, 9 (1937), pp. 314–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 241 note 4 Most of the Cobden's later writings are devoted to these themes. See especially '1793 and 1853 in. Three Letters' and 'The Three Panics' both in Vol. ii of the Political Writings.

page 241 note 5 Speeches, i, op. cit. pp. 515–527.

page 241 note 6 Cobden's most famous statement of this position is in the Don Pacifico debate of 1850. Speeches, ii, op. cit. pp. 225–9.

page 241 note 7 'A Letter to Henry Ashworth Esq', Political Writings, ii, op. cit. pp. 5–22.

page 241 note 8 McDonagh, 'The Anti-Imperialism of Free Trade’, passim.

page 242 note 1 Mill, J. S., Principles of Political Economy (Ashleys Edition, 1909), pp. 574–582.Google Scholar

page 242 note 2 ‘A Letter to Henry Ashworth, Esq.', Political Writings, ii, op. cit. pp. 17–18.

page 243 note 1 For a survey of Cobden's political fortunes after Repeal see N. McCord, 'Gobden and Bright in Politics 1846–47' in Robson, R. (ed.),Ideas and Institutions of Victorian Britain (London 1967)Google Scholar, PP. 87–114–.

page 243 note 2 For example of this see Musson, A. E., ‘The Manchester School and the Exportation of Machinery”, Business History, xiv (1972).Google Scholar

page 243 note 3 R. Robinson and J. Gallagher, 'The Imperialism, of Free Trade', Economic History Review, vi 1953–54), pp. 1–15; B. Semmell, The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism. Classical Political Economy, The Empire of Free Trade and Imperialism, 1750–1850 (Cambridge, 1970), esp, pp. 130–202. Those countries which were economically and militarily strong enough to resist our industrial and naval strength often adopted Protection as a means of preserving their advanced industrial sector from our competition and preventing dependence on us for commodities reckoned to be vital. Semmell argues (p. 16 of.) that, despite his cosmopolitanism., Gobden partook of this imperialism in some degree, especially before 1846, because he spoke of Free Trade as assuring British industrial predominance. Gobden did speak in this way occasionally but, it seems to me, largely as a means of attracting supporters to the Repeal campaign. His private writings, in which one would expect his most straightforward statements, do not contain this ”imperialist” element. Gf.'Cawley, op. cit. pp. 70–4, esp. for his private views on the United States.

page 243 note 4 Grampp, op. cit. p. 114; Semmell, op. cit. pp. 152—4.

page 243 note 5 For British economic policy in India see Harnetty, P., Imperialism and Free Trade: Lancashire and India in the Mid-nineteenth Century (Manchester, 1972).Google Scholar

page 244 note 1 Hobson, op. cit. p. 118. For an extended discussion of his views on the economic consequences of war at this time see Pol. Writings, ii, op. cit. pp. 191 ff.

page 244 note 2 Anderson, O., A Liberal State at War. English Politics and Economics during the Crimean War (New York, 1967), pp. 3–5, 20.Google Scholar

page 244 note 3 Hobson, op. cit. p. 194.

page 244 note 4 Morley, i, op. cit. p. 137. This was written in 1837.

page 244 note 5 Hobson, op. cit. p. 164; Morley, ii, op. cit. p. 145.

page 244 note 6 e.g. Hobson, op, cit. pp. 90, 115, 289.

page 245 note 1 Speeches, ii, op. cit. p. 195.

page 245 note 2 Ibid. p. 189.

page 245 note 3 Ibid. p. 183.

page 245 note 4 Ibid. pp. 193–4.

page 246 note 1 See Morley, i, op. cit. p. 464 f.

page 246 note 2 Hobson, op. cit. p. 90.

page 246 note 3 Ibid, esp. pp. 259, 266, 278–9. Iliasu, A. A., ‘The Cobden-Ghevalier Commercial Treaty of i860’, Historical Journal, xiv (1971), pp. 67–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 246 note 4 Speeches, ii, op. cit. pp. 302, 340—8, 523—4.

page 246 note 5 Smith, Goldwin, The Empire (London, 1863), p. ix.Google Scholar Cf. his obituary notice for Cobden in MacMillans Magazine, 12 (1865), pp. 90–2 and his article, ‘The Manchester School’, Contemporary Review, lxvii (1895), p. 380.Google Scholar

page 246 note 6 Flournoy, F. R., ‘British Liberal Theories of International Relations (1848–1898), Journal of the History of Ideas, 07 (1945), pp. 195–217;Google Scholar K. E. Miller, ‘John Stuart Mill's Theory of International Relations’, Ibid. 22 (1961), pp. 493–514.

page 247 note 1 Miall, C. S., Henry Richard M.P. A Biography (London, 1889).Google Scholar

page 247 note 2 Grampp, op. cit. pp. 121—6.

page 247 note 3 Hansard 3rd series, clxxii, c. 199–206, 224–8.

page 247 note 4 Miller, op. cit. p. 514.

page 247 note 5 Glarke, William, ‘Richard Cobden’, British Quarterly Review, lxxv (1882), p. 148.Google Scholar For a similar point see Morley, ii, op. cit. pp. 483–4.

page 247 note 6 Briggs, A., Victorian Cities (London 1963), p. 124.Google Scholar

page 247 note 7 Cobden's theory of foreign policy was of great importance to J. A. Hobson when the latter was formulating his immensely influential theory of economic imperialism. See Koebner, R., ‘The Concept of Economic Imperialism’, Economic History Review, iii (1950–1951), pp. 27–9Google Scholar and Cain, P. J., ‘J. A. Hobson, Cobdenism and the Development of the Theory of Economic Imperialism’, Economic History Review, xxxi, (1978), pp. 565–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar