The Real Merchant
William Cobbett makes a distinction between everyday business and the murky world of Westminster lobbyists and financial speculation.
1806
King George III 1760-1820
William Cobbett makes a distinction between everyday business and the murky world of Westminster lobbyists and financial speculation.
1806
King George III 1760-1820
William Cobbett, MP for Oldham, was sometimes accused of being anti-trade because he criticised the cosy arrangement between Government, big banks and big business. He replied with his customary vigour, distinguishing clearly between two kinds of commerce, the free trade that promotes liberty and the cronyism that endangers it.
abridged
I HAVE always said, that, without commerce, and particularly commercial navigation, that this island could not possibly continue to be great; that it could not possibly retain its consequence amongst the nations of Europe. The real merchant, as I have a hundred times observed, is a person to be cherished; his calling is as honourable and as conducive to the good of the country, as that of the farmer.*
It is only when his calling is perverted; when his trade becomes a species of gambling; when he trusts more to craft than to industry, prudence, and integrity; when he, if he be so lucky, may become richer than a lord by the speculations of a few days; when his fortune may be made, when the means of bringing five or six members in amongst the representatives of the people,* may be obtained in consequence of one valuable hint from a minister, or a minister’s favourite. Then it is that the commercial system becomes dangerous to the liberties of the people and the throne of the king; and then it is that it becomes an object of my reprobation.
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Cobbett was a farmer himself. Much like St Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:10-11, he admired people who laboured with their own hands.
Prior to the Great Reform Act of 1832, many MPs represented constituencies known as ‘pocket boroughs’ where the candidate was selected by one powerful landowner or businessman, or perhaps a small group of them. Getting rich enabled individuals to plant their own man in the Commons. Cobbett was in the habit of referring to them as ‘boroughmongers’, and to the whole system as The Thing.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.