Economic and Political Thought

Abram G. Hutzler Collection of Economic Classics

The Hutzler Collection of Economic Classics, endowed by Abram G. Hutzler, comprises over 5,500 printed titles and more than 1000 manuscripts in the fields of economic history and thought, principally English and mostly from the time of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. The full range of the collection, however, is from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, and additions continue to be made.

The Hutzler Collection has many highlights, including more than fifty editions and translations of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations which delineates "laissez-faire" economics and contains Smith's famous image of the invisible hand of competition as the moving force behind an economic system based on individual self-interest. The Hutzler Collection is also fortunate to include several volumes, of both economic and general interest, which were once part of Adam Smith's personal library and which carry his bookplate.

The Collection is also strong in the rise and development of British socialism, represented particularly by the works of Robert Owen. Owen, a Welsh industrialist, became one of the most influential utopian socialists and reformers of the early nineteenth century. His cotton mills and settlement at New Lanark, Scotland, became landmarks for their pioneering social and industrial welfare programs. He also encouraged the development of several utopian communities including one at New Harmony, Indiana. He is generally regarded as one of the founding fathers of British socialism and of the cooperative movement.

Some of the Collection is focused on agriculture, and representative items document the emergence of a scientific approach to farming which was gaining favor throughout the British Isles, including the late eighteenth-century concept of crop rotation with the use of nutrient-replenishing crops, such as turnips, clover, and rye grass. Illustrations in some volumes show new or improved agricultural implements, including various types of plows.

In 1793, the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement was formed under the presidency of Sir John Sinclair who initiated the collection of statistical information and preparation of agricultural surveys in Britain. The Hutzler Collection includes several of these surveys, some with hand-colored maps of countries surveyed.

Agricultural politics in the Hutzler Collection are represented by myriad pamphlets dealing with the bitter controversy over the corn laws, regulations governing the import and export of grain and first recorded in Great Britain during the twelfth century. These laws became politically important in the late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century because of British grain shortages caused by population growth and French blockades during the Napoleonic wars. The landed interest, farmers and landlords alike, demanded protective laws to secure high grain prices. The urban industrialists, however, insisted that free trade would cure Britain's economic woes and would offer the working classes lower prices and a source of cheap food. This latter position was enhanced by the establishment of the Anti-Corn-Law League in 1839. The League's leader, Richard Cobden was able to convince the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, to repeal all corn laws in 1846.

The formation of fiscal and monetary policy is another area of emphasis in the Hutzler Collection, including many works on the currency question of gold, silver, and paper money, the role of the Bank of England in the financial practices and conditions of Great Britain, and other topics of historical and current interest such as public debts, sinking funds, unfavorable trade relations, etc.