I maintained, as I still do, that the older
economists, writing before Socialism had arisen as a possible
alternative to Commercialism and a menace to its vested interests, were
far more candid in their statements and thorough in their reasoning than
their successors, and was fond of citing the references in De Quincey
and Austin's Lectures on Jurisprudence to the country gentleman system
and the evils of capitalism, as instances of frankness upon which no
modern professor dare venture.
The economical and moral identity of capital and interest with land and
rent was popularly demonstrated by Olivier in Tract 7 on Capital and
Land, and put into strict academic form by Sidney Webb. The point was of
importance at a time when the distinction was still so strongly
maintained that the Fabian Society was compelled to exclude Land
Nationalizers, both before and after their development into Single
Taxers, because they held that though land and rent should be
socialized, capital and interest must remain private property.
This really exhausts the history of the Fabian Society as far as
abstract economic theory is concerned. Activity in that department was
confined to Webb and myself. Later on, Pease's interest in banking and
currency led him to contribute some criticism of the schemes of the
currency cranks who infest all advanced movements, flourishing the paper
money of the Guernsey Market, and to give the Society some positive
guidance as to the rapid integration of modern banking.
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