J.S.Mill and the Irish Land Question: From Irish Economic History to Coherent Socialism and Irish Historicism

Abstract

John Stuart Mill is regarded as the last representative of the classical school of political economy. However, in a variety of issues, he developed interesting and radical economic views. The Irish land question is one of the most characteristic cases of his transition from classical economic analysis to a liberal version of socialism. This article attempts to illustrate this transition by highlighting Mill’s pluralistic and historically specific political economy. This is achieved through the delineation of his views on the Irish land question indexing his Principles of Political Economy (1848), England and Ireland (1868) and his pamphlet Land Tenure Reform (1871). The article concludes that Mill’s heretic views regarding the Irish land question are associated with his transition towards socialist views and facilitated the emergence of the Irish historical school of the late nineteenth century.