This page intentionally left blank F IC T IO N , FA M I N E , A N D T H E R I S E O F E C O N O M IC S I N V IC TO R I A N B R I TA I N A N D I R E L A N D We now think of economic theory as a scientific speciality accessible only to experts, but Victorian writers commented on economic subjects with great interest Gordon Bigelow focuses on novelists Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell and compares their work with commentaries on the Irish Famine (1845–52) Bigelow argues that, at this moment of crisis, the rise of economics depended substantially on concepts developed in literature These works all criticized the systematized approach to economic life that the prevailing political economy proposed Gradually, the romantic views of human subjectivity, described in the novels, provided the foundation for a new theory of capitalism based on the desires of the individual consumer Bigelow’s argument stands out by showing how the discussion of capitalism in these works had significant influence not just on public opinion, but on the rise of economic theory itself g ordon b i gelow is Assistant Professor of English at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee His work has appeared in the journals ELH, New Orleans Review, and Research in African Literatures, and in the volume Reclaiming Gender: Transgressive Identities in Modern Ireland (1999) c am b r i d ge s t u die s in n in e t e enth -c entury lit e rat u re an d cu lture General editor Gillian Beer, University of Cambridge Editorial board Isobel Armstrong, Birkbeck College, London Leonore Davidoff, University of Essex Terry Eagleton, University of Manchester Catherine Gallagher, University of California, Berkeley D A Miller, Columbia University J Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine Mary Poovey, New York University Elaine Showalter, Princeton University Nineteenth-century British literature and culture have been rich fields for interdisciplinary studies Since the turn of the twentieth century, scholars and critics have tracked the intersections and tensions between Victorian literature and the visual arts, politics, social organization, economic life, technical innovations, scientific thought – in short, culture in its broadest sense In recent years, theoretical challenges and historiographical shifts have unsettled the assumptions of previous scholarly synthesis and called into question the terms of older debates Whereas the tendency in much past literary critical interpretation was to use the metaphor of culture as “background,” feminist, Foucauldian, and other analyses have employed more dynamic models that raise questions of power and of circulation Such developments have reanimated the field This series aims to accommodate and promote the most interesting work being undertaken on the frontiers of the field of nineteenth-century literary studies: work which intersects fruitfully with other fields of study such as history, or literary theory, or the history of science Comparative as well as interdisciplinary approaches are welcomed A complete list of titles published will be found at the end of the book F I C T I O N , FA M I N E , A N D THE RISE OF ECONOMICS I N V I C TO R I A N B R I TA I N AND IRELAND GO R D O N B I G E L O W Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521828482 © Gordon Bigelow 2003 This book is in copyright Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published in print format 2003 - isbn-13 978-0-511-07127-0 eBook (EBL) - isbn-10 0-511-07127-2 eBook (EBL) - isbn-13 978-0-521-82848-2 hardback - isbn-10 0-521-82848-1 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of s for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate Contents Acknowledgments page ix Introduction part i o r i g i n s to r i e s a n d p o l i t i c a l e co n o m y, 1740–1870 History as abstraction Condillac’s philosophy of signs Rousseau’s revision Adam Smith on the origin of language Rousseau: writing and national character The abstraction of desire: Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments The abstraction of labor: the Wealth of Nations Value as signification Value and character in Ricardo Kant and the philologists Longfield and Whately: value in Irish economic thought J S Mill’s political ethology Jevons’s perfected speech pa rt i i p ro d u c i n g t h e co n s u m e r Market indicators: banking and housekeeping in Bleak House 1847 The bleakness of the house: the novel’s systems and metaphors Home of coin: Dickens in the Bank of England More market metaphysics The merits of the system vii 13 19 19 24 28 33 36 42 50 52 58 61 65 69 73 77 80 86 95 100 106 viii List of contents Esoteric solutions: Ireland and the colonial critique of political economy Trevelyan’s machine of history Esoteric solutions Potato money Asenath Nicholson’s new domestic economy Toward a social theory of wealth: three novels by Elizabeth Gaskell Household words: “homely and natural language” in Mary Barton “Cold lion”: history and rationality in Cranford Toleration and freedom in North and South Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index 112 119 122 127 134 144 145 158 166 182 184 212 224 ... great distances The Bank of England was founded in 1694 in order to manage the Crown’s significant debt, incurred in the military suppression of Ireland and in continuing war with Ireland? ??s Catholic... together.”43 The birth of the sign is the birth of desire; the rise of reflection as a linguistic principle is the reflection of desire in the desire of the other However, once Rousseau finishes... Market indicators: banking and housekeeping in Bleak House 1847 The bleakness of the house: the novel’s systems and metaphors Home of coin: Dickens in the Bank of England More market metaphysics The