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[Posted on behalf of David Levy. -- RBE] 
 
The link between Carlyle's attack on economics,  the Gov Eyre  
controversy and Dickens' _Hard Times_ at one level is pretty simple.  
We often think of socialist experiments as the alternative to market  
organization. But between 1840-1865 the real alternative was societies  
organized along the lines of racial slavery.   
 
Carlyle as advocate of racial slavery? Well, duh. Look in the OED for  
the "dismal science." Why was classical economics "dismal"? Simple:  
for its coalition with "Exeter Hall" in black emancipation. If the Fraser's  
"Occasional discourse the Negro question" is hard to get, I'll send a  
copy. The OED error is interesting. (When Carlyle grumbles in *Past  
and Present* about the waste of 20 million pounds, do editors help you  
understand what that means?) The same number occurs in "ODNQ."  
Why is this a waste?   
 
Mill responded next month, Jan 1850. Carlyle's "Present Time" the Feb  
1851 Latter-Day Pamphlet contains what I read as a response to Mill.  
Carlyle proposed that if slavery does not work, then racial  
extermination is in order. (Of course he said the same thing in  
_Chartism_ about the Irish.) Right. For Carlyle genocide is a policy  
option.    
 
Just talk? Well Eyre turned theory into practice. Did anyone note the  
connection? Why would one think that Carlyle headed the Eyre  
defense?    
 
Dickens? There are a couple interesting texts. One is his review of  
Uncle Tom's Cabin which he wrote with Morley and published in his  
magazine _Household words_. Here Dickens proposes a reform of  
slavery to heal the minds of slaves instead putting them into the market.  
Dickens extermination fantasy is found in _Noble Savages_, also in  
_Houshold Words_. Did anyone notice? Sure Lord Denman's protest  
is completely clear. 
 
_Hard Times_? I've a paper in which I argue that HT might be read as  
a response to _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. I don't make too much of it but  
when Ruskin first opened the literary defense of Eyre, I think he  
juxtaposed HT and UTC. The link I take is that for Dickens there is no  
moral difference between markets and slavery -- everthing depends  
upon the kindess of  masters. On what side of Eyre was Dickens?    
 
When my book _How the dismal science got its name: classical  
economics and the ur-text of racial politics_ comes out I'm going to try  
to persuade the publisher to use as dust jacket illustration the most  
remarkable image I found on a collection of Ruskin snippets of Ruskin  
as St George killing a somewhat non-standard dragon. [Note from  
Ross -- the illustration is fascinating: Ruskin slays a person (obviously  
black) holding a bag bearing the words "The Wealth of Nations."  
Beside the dying man is a book entitled "The Dismal Science."]   
 
Let me repeat an earlier offer to send papers forthcoming or circulating.  
I can also provide copies of the more difficult-to-obtain texts. It is  
easier for me to send them out from [log in to unmask]   
 
David M. Levy   
 
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