EXCITING THE INDUSTRY OF MANKIND. GEORGE BERKELEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY

Transcription

1 EXCITING THE INDUSTRY OF MANKIND. GEORGE BERKELEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY

2 ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS 170 EXCITING THE INDUSTRY OF MANKIND GEORGE BERKELEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY by CONSTANTINE GEORGE CAFFENTZIS Founding Directors: P. Dibont (Paris) and R.H. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA) Director: Sarah Hutton (The University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom) Assistant-Directors: J.E. Force (Lexington); J.C. Laursen (Riverside) Editorial Board: J.E Battail (Paris); E Duchesneau (Montreal); A. Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory (Rome); 1.0. North (Oxford); M.J. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington); G.A.J. Rogers (Keele); Th. Verbeek (Utrecht) Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); B. Copenhaver (Los Angeles); A. Crombie (Oxford); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop (Melbourne); E. Labrousse (Paris); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); J. Orcibal (Paris); w. ROd (MUnchen); G. Rousseau (Los Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers University, N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (ZUrich); J. Tans (Groningen)

3 CONSTANTINE GEORGE CAFFENTZIS University of Southern Maine EXCITING THE INDUSTRY OF MANKIND GEORGE BERKELEY'S PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.

4 A C.LP. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner

5 All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Tty again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho (1983)

6 Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction Berkeley's Antagonists Berkeley in Nigeria Notes Chapter 1. Berkeley's Monetary Education Biographical Introduction Note Episode 1. De Motu Bubblium Notes Episode 2. Copper and Consent Notes Episode 3. Slaves, Paper, and Baptism Notes Chapter 2. Problematic of The Querist: Cynical Content and the Agistment Tithe Crisis The Querist: Marks of Failure Ireland's Economic Crisis Tithe Agistment, the Church, and the Dublin Society IX Xlll VII

7 Vlll Contents Libertinism and the Crisis of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy 119 The "Tartars" Meet the "Goths" 124 Action in The Querist 135 Notes 145 Chapter 3. Prolegomena to The Querist 156 Section 1. Querying the Querist 156 Notes 175 Section 2. Defetishizing Gold 178 Notes 234 Chapter 4. The Querist's Solution 241 Section 1. Berkeley'S Second Conceptual Revolution 241 Notes 276 Section 2. Tickets, Banks, and Questions 280 Notes 309 Section 3. Molyneux Man Dances the Tarantella 314 Notes 333 Chapter 5. The Querist's Hope and Failure 337 Section 1. Passive Obedience, Theodicy, and the Excise Crisis 337 Notes 372 Section 2. Money, Libertinism, and Failure 379 Notes 400 Conclusion: Instructions for Dismounting from Sejanus' Golden Horse 405 Post-Modern Textuality 411 Post-Development 414 Post-Monetary 417 Notes 419 Bibliography 421 Index 440

8 Acknowledgments From its inception during a New Year's Day walk on the beach in Ibeno, Nigeria, to a final stroll on Old Orchard Beach, Maine, diagonally across the Atlantic from Ibeno, fifteen years later, this book has been my constant companion. It has been the source of and excuse for many travels, adventures, diversions, and work stoppages. I will miss it. At this moment of parting, however, the communal aspect of scholarly work becomes most apparent and compelling. More than a decade of generosity and hospitality offered to me and this book by friends and institutions across three continents demands acknowledgment. When I first arrived in Nigeria I marveled at the acknowledgment sections of university students' theses. They would often be a dozen pages long and might evoke more than a hundred names. These students openly acknowledged the inevitable commonism of intellectual work and the debts it incurs. They knew that though children might require villages for nurturance, books like this require libraries, conversations, plenty of time for preparing to write, long-term material support, and endless gifts of thought from the living, the dead, and those still to be born. If I was to be fair to their insight, this section would be a dozen pages longer than my Nigerian students'. But I will limit myself and parcel out by continents my return gift of naming. I began to write this book in Nigeria in 1985 when I was a Senior Lecturer in the University ofcalabar's Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy. I would like to thank Professor Maurice Ene, the Chair IX

9 x Acknowledgments of the Department then, for his concern for and interest in my work. Some of the early ideas were discussed in graduate seminars and public lectures in Calabar and I mention with special fondness the following students who participated in these discussions: S. Alabi, O. Oshita, and G.Ozumba. While in Nigeria I also had the good fortune to be part of an exciting intellectual circle of Nigerians and expatriates at the University of Port Harcourt. Although this circle was broken by the Babangida government's structural adjustment policies and political repression, I would like to express my thanks to those early commentators on the ideas of this book by name: Pade Badru, Mac and Joyce Dixon-Fyle, Nick Faraclas, Alamin Mazrui, Silvia Federici, and the late, beloved Patrick Kakwenzire. I hope this book returns to them even a pale shadow of intellectual and political excitement that they gave me. In the course of my research on the book I often went to Ireland and luckily I found a much needed scholarly embrace there. After all, I was a philosopher trying to maneuver through the turbulent waters of eighteenth-century Irish history and economics. There were moments, I must admit, when my confidence flagged. The most important help came from Professor Patrick Kelly of Trinity College, Dublin, who periodically assured me that I was sailing in the general vicinity of the historical trade routes. Professors Tom Boylan and Pascal O'Gorman helped to arrange a two-month stay at the University of Galway in 1993 that was crucial to the transformation of early drafts into the beginning of a credible manuscript. I also must thank Kevin Whelan and Kevin Barry for encouraging me to make my work more available to Irish intellectuals. I thank the editors of Eighteenth-Century Ireland for publishing "Why Did Bishop Berkeley's Bank Fail?: Money and Libertinism in Eighteenth-Century Ireland," in Eighteenth-Century Ireland, volume 12 (1997). It is an early version of Chapter 5, Section 2 of this book. I would also like to thank Arnold Heertje, the editor of the Vademecum that accompanied the Verlag Wirtschaft und Finanzen ein Unternehmen der Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GMBH (Dusseldorf) publication of a facsimile edition of George Berkeley's The Querist, for including my article, "Uber die Ursachen von The Querist," and making my work available to a Germanophone audience.

10 Acknowledgments Xl The bulk of the book was written while I was an Associate Professor at the Honors Program and Philosophy Department of the University of Southern Maine (USM). I thank many colleagues and students for their help in getting this book to publication. Primary among the caregivers is Professor Joseph Grange, who has read and commented on drafts of the text and has always been there for me and my work. The USM Philosophy Department graciously approved of a number of leaves over the years that have allowed me to continue to work on this book. USM provided funds in 1988 and 1996 for visits to Ireland that helped with my research. Nancy Lucas did an excellent job in transforming the manuscript into its final form and Maya de Keijzer, my editor at Kiuwer, has been helpful throughout the process of bringing the book to press. I would also like to thank the editors of The Maine Scholar for permission to use material from my article, "Querying the Querist: On George Berkeley's Questions," The Maine Scholar, volume 3 (1990). It is an early version of Chapter 3, Section 2. My comrades in the Midnight Notes Collective-Michaela Brennen, Steve Colatrella, Dan Coughlin, Silvia Federici, Peter Linebaugh, Monty Neill, David Riker, Hans Widmer, John Wilshire-Carrera, and Chris Vance-have kept me aware of their interest in my work and have continually asked about its relevance to the contemporary struggles against exploitation. My special thanks go to Peter Linebaugh and to his co-worker Marcus Rediker, who have made available to me material from their forthcoming book on the formation of the Atlantic proletariat in the eighteenth century, The Many-Headed Hydra. One of the most important moments in the writing of this book was my month-long residency in Whitehall, George Berkeley'S home in Middletown, Rhode Island, in August My stay brought me in direct contact with the sights and sounds Berkeley himself experienced during his American period. This intimate sharing of life with the subject of my book had a peculiar influence on me. I seemed to have gained a much greater confidence in my hypotheses concerning Berkeley's life afterwards. My thanks go to the International Berkeley Society and Society of Colonial Dames for giving me their permission to stay in Whitehall. Special thanks to Mrs. Joanne Dunlap for welcoming me and introducing me to Whitehall's mysteries. During the writing of the book my mother, Vasiliki Caifentzis, became mortally ill with cancer and died. I was able to be close to her

11 XlI Acknowledgments in her last months of life, to express my love for her and to feel again her love for me. In those months, I abandoned Berkeley, but in an inexplicable way her death gave me an existential push to finish this work. Finally, I acknowledge my loved companion of these last fifteen years of Atlantic life. Her comments, criticisms, and material helped make this book possible. Thanks to and for all.

12 Abbreviations A AL D Dis DM Essay F IP LA Letters The Analyst (1734) in Luce and Jessop (1951iv). References are by paragraph number. Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher (1732) in Luce and Jessop (1950iii). References are by dialogue and section number. Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (1713) in Luce and Jessop (1949ii). References are by dialogue and section number. A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Men in Authority (1737) in Luce and Jessop (1953vi). References are by page number. De Motu (1720) in Luce and Jessop (1951iv). References are by paragraph number. An Essay Towards Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain 1721) in Luce and Jessop (1953vi). References are by page number in text. A Defense of Free Thinking in Mathematics (1735) in Luce and Jessop (1951iv). References are by paragraph number. Irish Patriot or Queries on Queries (1738) in Luce and Jessop (1953vi). References are by query number. De Ludo Algebraico in Luce and Jessop (1951iv). Letters in Luce and Jessop (1956viii). References are by recipient, date, and page number in text. Xlll

13 XIV Abbreviations NTV OED P PC P Intro PO A Proposal S TVV An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709) in Luce and Jessop (1948i). References are by paragraph number. Oxford English Dictionary. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) in Luce and Jessop (1949ii). References are by paragraph number. Philosophical Commentaries (1707) in Luce and Jessop (1948i). References are by entry number. Introduction to the Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) in Luce and Jessop (1948ii). References are by paragraph number. Passive Obedience (1712) in Luce and Jessop (1953vi). References are by paragraph number. A Proposal for the Better Supplying of Churches in our Foreign Plantations in Luce and Jessop (1955vii). References are by page number. Siris (1744) in Luce and Jessop (1950v). References are by paragraph number. Theory of Vision Vindicated and Explained (1733) in Luce and Jessop (19481). References are by paragraph number. All references to The Querist will be to the first edition of the form (I. 3) where "I" refers to the first part of The Querist and "3" to the third query in that part. Tables to locate the queries can be found in Luce and Jessop (l953vi: ) and Johnston (1970: ).