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

我的目标是写出英国继承法辩论的第一部思想史。在18世纪的美国和法国，共和党人废除了长子继承制，并保留了继承权。平等继承法的颁布是为了重新分配财产，可以说这为现代民主国家奠定了基础。那么，为什么英国在1925年才废除长子继承制呢？我的论文探讨了一个被忽视的原因：至少在1848年之前，英国政治思想中的主要运动--政治经济学在继承改革问题上存在意识形态分歧。主要理论家将史密斯的道德情操理论(1759)武装起来，主张长子继承制和贵族制度刺激不平等；其他人则主张平等继承和代议制政府，最终以密尔的遗产税建议为高潮，他的《政治经济学原理》(1848)。我将通过三个有争议性的文本来考察为这些愿景提供的规范性理由：包括米勒和斯图尔特在内的苏格兰启蒙运动辩论；19世纪20年代马尔萨斯、麦卡洛克、奥斯汀和密尔之间的辩论；以及1848年前莱恩、博蒙特和桑顿的继承改革辩论。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，挑战对斯密的“自由”解释；并将19世纪的平等主义继承改革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.'