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- Title
J. A. Hobson, Cobdenism, and the Radical Theory of Economic Imperialism, 1898-1914.
- Authors
Cain, P.J.
- Abstract
This article examines the evolution of the ideas of J.A. Hobson, an economist, on the economics of imperialism between his discovery of financial imperialism in 1898 and the outbreak of war. Hobson's own reaction to imperialism can best be understood in relation to the Spencerian distinction between militant and industrial societies. The former were organized for war as their primary purpose. They tended, of necessity, to centralization, authoritarianism, and hierarchy, and were characterized by extreme protectionism and imperialism. Industrial societies, on the other hand were those in which men organized themselves voluntarily to supply material needs, through division of labor in a free market. Liberty and peace were felt to be the outcome of the workings of this natural society, as Paine called it, both nationally and internationally. Many radicals, including Hobson, identified progress as the gradual movement from militancy to industrialism; they were thus firmly committed to a belief in the efficacy of capitalist market relations as the foundation of their ideal world.
- Subjects
IMPERIALISM; HOBSON, J. A. (John Atkinson), 1858-1940; AUTHORITARIANISM; POLITICAL science; FREE trade; LIBERALISM
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1978, Vol 31, Issue 4, p565
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2595749