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For offer, a rare and interesting book! Fresh from a prominent estate in Upstate NY. I could not find this printing for sale anywhere else in the world. Vintage, Old, Original - NOT a Reproduction - Guaranteed !!

An Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for the People. To Which Was Adjudged the Prize Proposed by the Royal Irish Academy for the Best Dissertation on the Subject. Dublin: G. G. and J. Robinson; R. Faulder; and R. E. Mercier and Co. xxviii, 339 p. Second edition. Bound in leather, this antique volume is a a valuable essay, directed specifically at the socio-economic problems of Ireland, which analyses the causes of Irish distress. The author suggests as remedies a bounty on the exportation of corn (p.241) and a prohibition on the export of wool (p.303). Malthus (Essay on Population, book iv, ch. xi, note) records his view that Crumpe's Essay was 'an excellent treatise'. McCulloch also praised it generously: 'It is but seldom that a prize essay is worth looking into. The present, however, is an exception to the common rule, and is a really valuable publication. The author was an intelligent physician residing in Limerick. The principles which pervade the work are sound; and those parts of it which have special reference to Ireland are distinguished by the absence of prejudice, and by their practical good sense'. [Literature of Political Economy, p.284]. 

Full tree calf leather. Good condition. Front board detached, t.p. has portion ripped out at top, affecting text. Text tightly bound. Back hinge good, but cracked. Clean text. Please see photos below. NOTE: Looks better than shown in photos below! If you collect 18th century English / British imprints, labor, working history, etc., this is a treasure and one you will not see again soon! Add this to your bibliophile library or paper / ephemera collection. Perhaps some genealogy research importance too. Combine shipping on multiple bid wins!

 

Samuel Crumpe (1766–1796) was an Irish physician and a writer on medical and social issues.

Life

Samuel Crumpe was born at Rathkeale on 15 September 1766.

In 1788, at the age of 22, he was awarded the degree of MD at Edinburgh University, with a dissertation in which he argued that scurvy could be cured by good diet. The same year he set up in practice in Limerick, where he was notable for his active service to the poor through his work at St John's Hospital.[1]

In 1792 he married Susan Ingram. The couple had two children,[2] one of whom wrote the historical novel Geraldine of Desmond: Or, Ireland in the Reign of Elizabeth. An Historical Romance in Three Volumes (1829).

Dr Crumpe died in Limerick on 27 January 1796, aged 29. One obituary notice recorded that he was "a man whose rare virtues and accomplishments recommended him to the respect and esteem of a widely extended and diversified acquaintance".[3]
Writings

In 1793 Crumpe's Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for the People won the prize offered by the Royal Irish Academy.[4] It was translated into French and German, as was his book on opium which appeared the same year.[5] The work was heavily indebted to Adam Smith in its assumptions about society and economy.[6]

Crumpe’s work on opium provided an experimental basis for classifying the drug as a stimulant rather than a narcotic,[7] and was the first to provide an extensive discussion of withdrawal effects.[8]
Bibliography

    De Vitiis quibus Humores corrumpi dicuntur, eorumque Remediis, doctoral dissertation, 1788.
    An Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for the People, 1793. Second edition 1795. Available on Google Books
    An Inquiry into the Nature and Properties of Opium, 1793. Available on Google Books
    History of a Case in which very uncommon worms were discharged from the stomach, 1797 (lecture read to the Royal Irish Academy on 6 December 1794, published posthumously). Also available in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 6 (Dublin, 1797).

Ireland's economic history starts at the end of the Ice Age when the first humans arrived there. Agriculture then came around 4500 BC. Iron technology came with the Celts around 350 BC. From the 12th century to the 1970s, most Irish exports went to England. During this period, Ireland's main exports were foodstuffs. In the 20th century, Ireland's economy diversified and grew. It is now one of the richest countries in the world by GDP per capita.

he Irish workforce's historic concentration in agriculture, to a greater subdivision of remaining land plots and increasingly less efficient and less profitable subsistence farms.[2][3]

Ireland's economic problems were in part the result of the small size of Irish landholdings. In particular, both the law and social tradition provided for subdivision of land, with all sons inheriting equal shares in a farm, meaning that farms became so small that only one crop, potatoes, could be grown in sufficient amounts to feed a family. Furthermore, many estates, from whom the small farmers rented, were poorly run by absentee landlords and in many cases heavily mortgaged.

When potato blight hit the island in 1845, much of the rural population was unable to access the remaining food – wheat, livestock etc. which was due to export to Britain. At this time British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were wedded to a strict laissez-faire economic policy, which argued against state intervention of any sort. While some money was raised by private individuals and charities (Native Americans sent supplies, while Queen Victoria personally donated £1,000) British government inaction (or at least inadequate action) led to a problem becoming a catastrophe; the class of cottiers or farm labourers was virtually wiped out.[4]

The famine spawned the second mass wave of Irish immigration to the United States, the first having been the migrations of the 18th century. There was also a large amount of emigration to England, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. This had the long term consequence of creating a large and influential Irish diaspora, particularly in the United States, who supported and financed different Irish independence movements, beginning with the Irish Republican Brotherhood. From 1879 a "Land War" developed, and by 1903 many farmers were able to buy their land, but usually chose small and uneconomic lots.

In east Ulster the industrial revolution led to rapid urbanization. Belfast grew from a population of 7,000 in 1800 to 400,000 in 1900, having outgrown Dublin, the former capital.

In the 1890s, the Irish agricultural cooperative movement flourished, with bodies such as the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society becoming important elements of the economy.[5] Cooperatives greatly increased the productivity of Irish agriculture, especially in the dairy sector, while also playing a part in the growth of Irish nationalism.[6]

History since partition

Main articles: Economic history of the Republic of Ireland and Economic history of Northern Ireland

After the War of Independence, most of Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom. Twenty-six counties of Ireland became the Irish Free State, later described as the Republic of Ireland, while the other six remained in the Union as Northern Ireland. There had already been a significant economic divide between these two parts of Ireland, but following partition both regions further diverged, with Belfast, as the North's economic centre, and Dublin becoming the capital of the Free State. Partition had a devastating effect on what became Ireland's border area. County Donegal for example was economically separated from its natural regional economic centre of Derry. The rail network struggled to operate across two economic areas, finally closing across a vast swath of Ireland's border area (the only cross-border route left being that between Belfast and Dublin). The last remaining cross-border line (Belfast-Dublin) could not have operated after 1953 without government support.

Both parts of Ireland in effect used pound sterling (to which the Irish pound was pegged) until 1979 (when the peg was removed). As a result, both parts also shared in any inflation or deflation in the value of sterling, with interests rates being determined in London. The continuing link to sterling from 1922 to 1979 underlines how much the economy of the south depended upon exports to (and remittances from) Britain, even though it was politically independent.

In general the economy of the Republic was much weaker than that of the North throughout the 20th century, being based on agriculture; and much of that also being based on uneconomically small farms. Protectionism was introduced by Seán Lemass in 1932 and the economy became isolated. From 1945–60 Ireland missed out on the European economic boom across Europe, and 500,000 people emigrated. A major policy change followed the issue of TK Whitaker's economic model in 1958, and the Republic slowly embraced the industrial world. Most Irish exports continued to go to Britain until 1969. Lemass reversed his policies in 1959 and the economy started to grow as a new member of the EFTA.[7]

Meanwhile, the main northern industries based on shipbuilding, ropes, shirts and textiles declined from 1960, and then more so due to the 1970s 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland, despite government investment in projects such as the Belfast DeLorean plant. In 2005 the northern economy was supported by a net annual "subvention" from London of £5 billion, an amount that has risen over time.[8]

Conversely, after a bleak period in the 1970s and 1980s, the Celtic Tiger era in the Republic was spurred on by the high technology industries that took root in the country in the mid-1990s. The southern economy also benefited relatively more after 1973 up to 2002 from the European Structural Funds system. It grew markedly until 2007, but no corrective measures were taken to control the process, leading to the 2008 crisis.

However, since 2014, the Republic of Ireland has seen large economic growth, referred to as the "Celtic Phoenix".

See also

Economy of the Republic of Ireland

The economy of the Republic of Ireland is a highly developed knowledge economy, focused on services in high-tech, life sciences, financial services and agribusiness, including agrifood. Ireland is an open economy (6th on the Index of Economic Freedom) and ranks first for high-value foreign direct investment (FDI) flows.[25] In the global GDP per capita tables, Ireland ranks 4th of 186 in the IMF table and 4th of 187 in the World Bank ranking.[26][27]

Following a period of continuous growth at an annual level from 1984 to 2007,[28] the post-2008 Irish financial crisis severely affected the economy, compounding domestic economic problems related to the collapse of the Irish property bubble. Ireland first experienced a short technical recession from Q2-Q3 2007, followed by a recession from Q1 2008 – Q4 2009.[29]

After a year with stagnant economic activity in 2010, Irish real GDP rose by 2.2% in 2011 and 0.2% in 2012 - mainly driven by improvements in the export sector. The European sovereign-debt crisis caused a new Irish recession starting in Q3 2012, which was still ongoing as of Q2 2013.[30] By mid-2013 the European Commission's economic forecast for Ireland predicted its growth rates would return to a positive 1.1% in 2013 and 2.2% in 2014.[31] An inflated 2015 GDP growth of 26.3% (GNP growth of 18.7%) was officially partially ascribed to tax inversion practices by multinationals switching domiciles.[32] This growth in GDP, dubbed by economist Paul Krugman as 'leprechaun economics', was shown to be driven by Apple restructuring its Irish subsidiary in January 2015. The distortion of Ireland's economic statistics (including GNI, GNP and GDP) by the tax practices of some multinationals, led the Central Bank of Ireland to propose an alternative measure (modified GNI or GNI*)[33] to more accurately reflect the true state of the economy from that year onwards.[34][35]

Foreign-owned multinationals continue to contribute significantly to Ireland's economy, making up 14 of the top 20 Irish firms (by turnover),[36] employing 23% of the private sector labour-force[37] and paying 80% of corporation tax collected.[38][39]

As of mid-2019, economic growth in Ireland was predicted to decline, especially in the event of a disorderly Brexit.[40][41]

The economic history of the Republic of Ireland effectively began in 1922, when the then Irish Free State won independence from the United Kingdom. The state was plagued by poverty and emigration until the 1960s when an upturn led to the reversal of long term population decline. However, global and domestic factors combined in the 70s and 80s to return the country to poor economic performance and emigration. The 1990s, however saw the beginning of unprecedented economic success, in a phenomenon known as the "Celtic Tiger", which continued until the 2008 global financial crisis, specifically the post-2008 Irish economic downturn. It also led to the Republic of Ireland becoming the most indebted state in the European Union.[1] As of 2015, the Republic has returned to growth, and was the fastest growing economy for that year.[2] Since August 2017, Irish unemployment has been at a 9-year low of 6.1%.[3]

According to Oxford economic historian Kevin O'Rourke, Irish independence coupled with membership of the European Union have been crucial to Irish economic prosperity.[4]