Anti-Imperialist Economics: An Irish Perspective
The turn of the 20th century saw global revolutionary struggles to emancipate subjugated peoples from imperial forces. These struggles were certainly antagonistic but not devoid of their own positive constructs. The narratives of national independence, while explanatory in one context, obscure economic doctrines as insignificant or unconsidered. The case of the Irish Revolution is often characterized in this way. It is suggested that romanticism successfully inspired Irish aspirations against the English, but such sentimentalism lacked comprehensive and practical economic policies. If there were any such policies, they are suggested to be because of Irish provincial isolationism. Far from what is alleged, the Irish Revolution’s economic doctrines were derived from global, substantiated, and policy-oriented influences.
Arthur Griffith is the intellectual source of Irish revolutionary economics. He was the founder of Sinn Fein and first internationally recognized president of an independent Ireland. These roles prove his significance within the hierarchy of the Irish Revolution as the source, although his intellectualness emanated from his unceasing and scholastic ability as a life-long journalist.[1] No other Irishman had the scope of research and the quantity of written works. It must be noted that James Connolly was another influential source on economics. His socialist perspective certainly shaped Irish revolutionary discourse. Michael Collins said, “I admire…[Connolly] the most.”[2] However, Connolly’s socialism never gained much share of Irish minds. Collins would go on to be more deferential to Griffith, most evident when he said, “Griffith. Beyond Griffith no one.”[3] He mirrored Griffith’s ideas more so than those of Connolly’s in his 1922 work “The Path to Freedom.” This investigation will use Griffith as its subject and compare his ideas through time and space. Griffith stated that he derived his ideas from the early-mid 19th century German economist, Friedrich List. List is known today as the founder of protectionist tariff policy and the more general school of development economics. Within the last three decades, development economic scholars have returned to List, who had become dismissed by the economic mainstream. Heterodox scholars, like Ha-Joon Chang, have now convincingly proven List’s theories by revealing that the success of developed nations, most notably the more recent East Asian nations, are derived from their application of List’s works. Thus, this investigation will seek to analyze List’s original principles, Griffith’s synthesis, and Chang’s validation of them.
It must be noted that at the turn of the 20th century J.A. Hobson’s 1902 “Imperialism: A Study” was a popular examination and critique of imperialism. Hobson explained how private interests, unsatisfied with their capital’s domestic rate of growth, sought to invest in foreign lands where the growth rate could be increased. After investing and incurring the risk of such a venture, those private interests would seek to offset their personal risk by selfishly manipulating their domestic government to militarily dominate the foreign lands.[4] Rather than any civilizing mission, the system of imperialism exploited, slaughtered, enslaved, and stymied foreign peoples. His scope was global by necessity because of the vastness of Britain’s imperial empire but South Africa loomed large in his formulation. Prior to this work, he was a journalist who reported on the conflict between the English and Boers in South Africa. Through this journey he became fiercely pro-Boer and their example served as a major building block in his overall theory.