Political Economy & The Politics of Inheritance in Britain: 1759-1848

我的目标是写英国继承法辩论的第一部思想史。在世纪的美国和法国，共和主义者废除了长子继承制和限定继承制。平等继承法的颁布是为了重新分配财产，可以说为现代民主国家奠定了基础。那么，为什么英国直到1925年才废除长子继承制和继承式呢？我的论文探讨了一个被忽视的原因：政治经济学，英国政治思想中的主导运动，至少在1848年之前，在继承改革方面存在意识形态上的分歧。主要的理论家将斯密的《道德情操论》（1759年）作为武器，支持长子继承制和贵族制，认为这会刺激不平等;其他人则支持平等继承和代议制政府，最终穆勒在他的《政治经济学原理》（1848年）中提出了遗产税建议。我将在三个有争议的语境中考察这些观点的规范性理由：苏格兰启蒙运动的辩论，包括米勒和斯图尔特; 19世纪20年代马尔萨斯，麦卡洛克，奥斯汀和米尔之间的辩论;以及1848年前莱恩，博蒙和桑顿的继承改革论点。我将通过重建斯密关于义务和不平等的非理性基础的理论来挑战他的“自由主义”解释;并将19世纪平等主义继承改革的论点重新解释为建立在共和传统之上，而不是试图解决“社会问题”。'

I aim to write the first intellectual history of the British succession law debates. In eighteenth century America andFrance, republicans abolished primogeniture and entail. Equal inheritance laws were enacted to redistribute property,arguably laying the foundations for modern democratic states. Why, then, did Britain only abolish primogeniture andentail in 1925? My thesis explores a neglected reason: that political economy, the predominant movement within Britishpolitical thought, was ideologically divided over inheritance reform until at least 1848. Key theorists weaponised Smith'sTheory of Moral Sentiments (1759), championing primogeniture and aristocracy as stimulating inequality; others arguedfor equal inheritance and representative government, culminating with Mill's inheritance tax proposal in his Principles ofPolitical Economy (1848). I will examine normative justifications given for these visions across three argumentativecontexts: the Scottish Enlightenment debates including Millar and Stewart; the 1820s debates between Malthus,McCulloch, Austin and Mill; and the pre-1848 inheritance reform arguments of Laing, Beaumont and Thornton. I willchallenge 'liberal' interpretations of Smith by reconstructing his theories of the non-rational foundations of obligation andinequality; and reinterpret nineteenth century egalitarian inheritance reform arguments as building upon the republicantradition, rather than as attempts at solving the 'social question.'