Modest Proposal Summary

Swift's Modest Proposal: The Biography of an Early Georgian Pamphlet

By George Wittkowsky

Summary

A modest Proposal by Irish economic writer Jonathan Swift is a parody pamphlet to 18th century’s Mercantilist belief that “People are the riches of a nation”. In the mercantilists’ view, no child was too young to get into industry and act as a commodity. Written in 1729, it stated that “Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of POOR People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick” This work by Swift has received much censure and is believed to degrade the Irish by using animal-like language as a metaphor to designate human situations and has remained highly neglected from the literature. Although, some writers did focus on Swift’s remarks and have written about it. Recent works by scholars such as Furniss, Heckscher, and Johnson indicate that it is worthless to study the works of early economists; however, it is now believed that it is inevitable to reexamine the works of Jonathan Swift.

The theoretical background of the Modest Proposal goes like this: The terms often mentioned in the Swiftian Masterpiece are uncanny, which include “the impotent poor” and “the able poor”. The earlier term is used for the poor people who are either too old, very young or unemployable; the latter term indicates the poor people who are able to perform useful labor, despite their age. Note here that according to Bullinist theory, labor was considered as a commodity. Although, some Englishmen saw it as a responsibility to help poor, and so The Elizabethan Poor Laws ventured charity and it was categorized into three parts: impotent and aged, children, and people able to work but unemployed. Meanwhile, mercantilists who asserted that people are riches of the nation now stated that only the portion of the population which was usefully employed was the national wealth. As Charles Davenant quotes “The sick and impotent, beggars and vagrants are nourish'd at the Cost of Others; and are a Yearly Burthen to the Publick.” 2

As the crisis arose about the management of poor relief, unemployment, labor, population et al in England and Ireland, incepted the idea of running poor through a joint-stock company and manage them for profit. Consequently, the poor people formerly known as fellow countrymen were now being regarded as “a distinctive species, a sect apart”.

“I confess myself to be touched with a very sensible pleasure, when I hear of a mortality in any country parish or village, where the wretches are forced to pay for a filthy cabin, and two ridges of potatoes, treble the worth; brought up to steal or beg, for want of work; to whom death would be the best thing to be wished for on account both of themselves and the public.” stated Swift himself. As horrid as it seems, it is apparent that the writer advocated the death of the poo, than living in such a downgraded society with all the sufferings.