Modern Language Association MLA Devouring Posterity:"A Modest Proposal",Empire,and Ireland's"Debt of the Nation" Author(s):Sean Moore Source:PMLA.Vol.122.No.3(May,2007).pp.679-695 Published by:Modern Language Association Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/25501737 Accessed:10-11-2017 17:56 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars,researchers.and students discover,use.and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive.We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR.please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms Conditions of Use,available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to PMLA USTOR This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Devouring Posterity: "A Modest Proposal", Empire, and Ireland's "Debt of the Nation" Author(s): Sean Moore Source: PMLA, Vol. 122, No. 3 (May, 2007), pp. 679-695 Published by: Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25501737 Accessed: 10-11-2017 17:56 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
122.3 Devouring Posterity:A Modest Proposal, Empire,and Ireland's“Debt of the Nationi” SEAN MOORE [OJur modern expedient...is to mortgage the public revenues,and to trust that posterity will pay off the incumbrances contracted by their ancestors. -David Hume,Of Public Credit(167) I GRANT this Food will be somewhat dear,and therefore very proper for Landlords;who,as they have already devoured most of the Parents,seem to have the best Title to the Children. -Jonathan Swift,A Modest Proposal (Prose Works 12:112) ONATHAN SWIFT'S A MODEST PROPOSAL TRADITIONALLY HAS BEEN regarded as an indictment of colonial landlordism in Ireland,one asserted subtly through the play between the narrator's rational overt tone and the author's covert critique of it(Smith 136-37).This design,it has been argued,forces the reader to play the roles of three audiences,the hailing of which he or she anticipates in the process of exegeses.These are an"ideal narrative audience"who finds"the nar- SEAN MOORE is assistant professor for Res toration and eighteenth-century studies rator's argument cogent and compelling,"another who takes the ar- at the University of New Hampshire.His gument as a“serious proposal'”that reflects the“skewed”values of the essays,new-economic and postcolonial first audience,and a third who feels privileged to recognize the cre- readings of eighteenth-century colonial ativity the author showed in crafting the work's irony(Culler 34-35). literatures,have appeared in Atlantic Stud. Swift's correspondence and references to the satire in contemporary ies,the Eighteenth Century:Theory and In- works document multiple receptions,but few studies have positioned terpretation,Eighteenth Century Ireland,the "the reader among the eaters"(Phiddian 618)by locating the "actual Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial audience"Swift addressed when he chose to publish it first in Dublin Studies,and the forthcoming Oxford Uni- in October 1729(Culler 34).Newly discovered external evidence,I versity Press volume The Postcolonial En- lightenment.This article is adapted from a argue,intimates that the parliament convening in Dublin that month chapter in a book he is completing to be may have been the satire's intended target.'This body was composed entitled A Republic of Debt:Swift,Satire. exclusively of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy,a landed caste and Colonial Sovereignty. who secured its dominance by legally forbidding non-Anglicans from 2007 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 679 This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
12 2.3 Devouring Posterity: A Modest Proposal, Empire, and Ireland's "Debt of the Nation" SEAN MOORE SEAN MOORE is assistant professor for Res toration and eighteenth-century studies at the University of New Hampshire. His essays, new-economic and postcolonial readings of eighteenth-century colonial literatures, have appeared in Atlantic Stud ies, the Eighteenth Century: Theory and In terpretation, Eighteenth Century Ireland, the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, and the forthcoming Oxford Uni versity Press volume The Postcolonial En lightenment. This article is adapted from a chapter in a book he is completing to be entitled A Republic of Debt: Swift, Satire, and Colonial Sovereignty. [0]ur modern expedient... is to mortgage the public revenues, and to trust that posterity will pay off the incumbrances contracted by their ancestors. ?David Hume, Of Public Credit (167) J GRANT this Food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords; who, as they have already devoured most ofthe Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children. ?Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (Prose Works 12: 112) JONATHAN SWIFT'S >4 MODEST PROPOSAL TRADITIONALLY HAS BEEN regarded as an indictment of colonial landlordism in Ireland, one asserted subtly through the play between the narrator's rational overt tone and the author's covert critique of it (Smith 136-37). This design, it has been argued, forces the reader to play the roles of three audiences, the hailing of which he or she anticipates in the process of exegeses. These are an "ideal narrative audience" who finds "the nar rator s argument cogent and compelling," another who takes the ar gument as a "serious proposal" that reflects the "skewed" values ofthe first audience, and a third who feels privileged to recognize the cre ativity the author showed in crafting the works irony (Culler 34-35). Swift's correspondence and references to the satire in contemporary works document multiple receptions, but few studies have positioned "the reader among the eaters" (Phiddian 618) by locating the "actual audience" Swift addressed when he chose to publish it first in Dublin in October 1729 (Culler 34). Newly discovered external evidence, I argue, intimates that the parliament convening in Dublin that month may have been the satire's intended target.1 This body was composed exclusively ofthe Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy, a landed caste who secured its dominance by legally forbidding non-Anglicans from ? 2007 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 679 This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
680 Devouring Posterity:A Modest Proposal,Empire,and Ireland's"Debt of the Nation" PMLA owning property or serving in government.Its of the early eighteenth century,the "synthe- members had lent money to a national secu- sis of sovereignty and capital"envisioned by rity fund in 1716 when the Jacobites,Catho- the bourgeois intellectuals who deposed the lic exiles who had lost their property to the monarchy in 1688(Hardt and Negri 87).The Anglo-Irish in seventeenth-century wars,were founding of the Bank of England in 1694,its preparing to reinvade.Many members of Par- circulation of paper currency,and its manage- liament received interest on this investment ment of a national debt by which a permanent in Ireland's first“debt of the nation”from the standing army could be financed had made taxes that they had the political power to levy Britain the first modern "fiscal-military state" on the native poor,but the famine of the late (Brewer xvii).Swift was among the first to 1720s had decimated the usual revenues,forc- articulate how currency and credit,as John ing them to consider additional ones.Like the Brewer notes in The Sinews of Power,fueled North American colonists in the decades fol- this imperial war machine.The new paper lowing the Seven Years'War,the Anglo-Irish money became his "favourite topic"for politi- members of Parliament were threatened by cal polemic,especially after the South Sea Bub- the British Crown's and Parliament's efforts ble had proved that the worth of banknotes, to appropriate these potential new funds for stock certificates,and government bonds, the empire's operations elsewhere.Ireland given their lack of intrinsic value,was based already was financing British and American solely on confidence generated by publicity expansion into French,Spanish,and Native (Ehrenpreis 3:616).In Swift's view,the credi- American territory to the extent that its sover- tors funding the empire-major companies eignty over its resources,as James Joyce wryly like the bank-would manipulate the value put it centuries later,was attenuated in the of their stock for profit,suggesting that the pull "[b]etween the Saxon smile and yankee state could no longer regulate the economy. yawp.The devil and the deep sea"(187).The This loss of political control occurred because Proposal,accordingly,can be taken to be an companies,in exchange for their loans to the intervention in the budgetary debates of the state,owned large portions of the taxes levied 1729 legislative session by promoting a new on the English people.This form of debt bond- means of fiscal control.I argue that its calcu- age enabled company directors to coerce the lated calendar for baby slaughter allegorically agrarian gentry who were operating the gov- recommended a schedule for temporal re- ernment to support wars necessary to secure straint in consumption-a diet in the stream profits(Colley 64).This manifest eclipse of the of revenue-that would make the empire re- authority of the "landed interest”bya“mon- spect the Irish parliament's feeding hand.By eyed interest"(Kramnick 61)of financiers re- declaring such a fast,the Anglo-Irish could ified the concept of the "nation"as a substitute guarantee that they,and not the British,would for authentic political agency:"Nation-states devour native posterity.This article does not are invented through a process of fetishistic foreclose the satire's many other interpretive misrecognition whereby debt,absence,and possibilities-analysis of its discourses on im- powerlessness are transubstantiated,mainly perialism,poverty,or child molestation,for through class exploitation at home and war example-but contends that approaching its abroad,into their opposites"(Brantlinger 20). actuarial logic in relation to the debt of the “Britishness,”the product of such misrecog- nation opens a new context in which those nition,was compensation for those subjected readings can be further explored.2 to what had become a“sovereignty machine'”: A Modest Proposal could be regarded as an apparatus subsuming personalities to the a response to the English financial revolution point of total mimetic identification with the This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://aboutjstor.org/terms
68o Devouring Posterity: A Modest Proposal, Empire, and Ireland's "Debt of the Nation" PMLA owning property or serving in government. Its members had lent money to a national secu rity fund in 1716 when the Jacobites, Catho lic exiles who had lost their property to the Anglo-Irish in seventeenth-century wars, were preparing to reinvade. Many members of Par liament received interest on this investment in Ireland's first "debt of the nation" from the taxes that they had the political power to levy on the native poor, but the famine of the late 1720s had decimated the usual revenues, forc ing them to consider additional ones. Like the North American colonists in the decades fol lowing the Seven Years' War, the Anglo-Irish members of Parliament were threatened by the British Crown's and Parliament's efforts to appropriate these potential new funds for the empire's operations elsewhere. Ireland already was financing British and American expansion into French, Spanish, and Native American territory to the extent that its sover eignty over its resources, as James Joyce wryly put it centuries later, was attenuated in the pull "[b]etween the Saxon smile and yankee yawp. The devil and the deep sea" (187). The Proposal, accordingly, can be taken to be an intervention in the budgetary debates of the 1729 legislative session by promoting a new means of fiscal control. I argue that its calcu lated calendar for baby slaughter allegorically recommended a schedule for temporal re straint in consumption?a diet in the stream of revenue?that would make the empire re spect the Irish parliament's feeding hand. By declaring such a fast, the Anglo-Irish could guarantee that they, and not the British, would devour native posterity. This article does not foreclose the satire's many other interpretive possibilities?analysis of its discourses on im perialism, poverty, or child molestation, for example?but contends that approaching its actuarial logic in relation to the debt of the nation opens a new context in which those readings can be further explored.2 A Modest Proposal could be regarded as a response to the English financial revolution ofthe early eighteenth century, the "synthe sis of sovereignty and capital" envisioned by the bourgeois intellectuals who deposed the monarchy in 1688 (Hardt and Negri 87). The founding of the Bank of England in 1694, its circulation of paper currency, and its manage ment of a national debt by which a permanent standing army could be financed had made Britain the first modern "fiscal-military state" (Brewer xvii). Swift was among the first to articulate how currency and credit, as John Brewer notes in The Sinews of Power, fueled this imperial war machine. The new paper money became his "favourite topic" for politi cal polemic, especially after the South Sea Bub ble had proved that the worth of banknotes, stock certificates, and government bonds, given their lack of intrinsic value, was based solely on confidence generated by publicity (Ehrenpreis 3: 616). In Swift's view, the credi tors funding the empire?major companies like the bank?would manipulate the value of their stock for profit, suggesting that the state could no longer regulate the economy. This loss of political control occurred because companies, in exchange for their loans to the state, owned large portions ofthe taxes levied on the English people. This form of debt bond age enabled company directors to coerce the agrarian gentry who were operating the gov ernment to support wars necessary to secure profits (Colley 64). This manifest eclipse ofthe authority ofthe "landed interest" by a "mon eyed interest" (Kramnick 61) of financiers re ified the concept ofthe "nation" as a substitute for authentic political agency: "Nation-states are invented through a process of fetishistic misrecognition whereby debt, absence, and powerlessness are transubstantiated, mainly through class exploitation at home and war abroad, into their opposites" (Brantlinger 20). "Britishness," the product of such misrecog nition, was compensation for those subjected to what had become a "sovereignty machine": an apparatus subsuming personalities to the point of total mimetic identification with the This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
122,3 Sean Moore 681 transcendent nation (Hardt and Negri 87-88). models the new economic criticism's potential Women's bodies,as Charlotte Sussman has to step beyond postcolonial and Marxist criti- explained,ensured this mechanism by repro- cism and imagines how political and cultural ducing armies of loyal subjects whose taxed concerns may be linked to economic analy- consumption would pay interest and principal sis.It makes this claim on the basis of early on investment in the nation(104-06). modern political philosophy,which had es- These developments may suggest that tablished that language and money were con- national debts are "even more fundamental sidered homologous representations of state to the fictional or ideological creation and authority(Hawkes 19).The sign,in the sphere maintenance of the imagined communities of the media,censorship,and publicity,se- of modern nation-states than...literary can- cured the value of the currency by promoting ons,"but it is not likely that this new form of the reputation of the state and the legitimacy government could have achieved hegemony of its constitutional functions,a necessity without the simultaneous rise of a national if government were to guarantee the trans- aesthetic (Brantlinger 20).New economic parency of all contracts,public and private, critics of the professionalization of author- with a sound legal tender.The indivisibility ship and the textuality of money have argued of these aspects of sovereignty was highly that the novel,a genre inventing the domestic rarefied in the eyes of dispossessed colonials, space of the home as the interior conscience of who saw how the British fiscal-military state the nation,performed this function.The print substituted an abstract commodity-national trade,in their view,was similar to the ex- identity circulated in literature-for the mate- change of commodities in that the velocity of rial resources it alienated to reproduce itself. transfers of provenance over both books and Ireland's debt,like England's,was the ide- currency governed how they were appraised ological foundation of the Anglo-Irish Protes- (Lynch 81).The purely fictional worth of the tant nation.This colonial caste,a hybrid entity new paper money created a crisis of judgment caught between the natives it governed and resolved by the novel's capacity to serve "as the metropolis to which it was subject,soon an ideological regrounding of intrinsic value" learned to appropriate the empire's homolo- in its depiction of"the home and companion- gies of finance,language,and law to protect its ate marriage"as instantiations of the "real" investment and claim its parliament's right to (Thompson 21-22).Authority over assessing regulate Ireland's economy.Members of this "undifferentiated tokens of epistemological caste mobilized the Dublin press for the pro- opacity"like currency and books devolved to duction of domestic cultural capital that would readers(Sherman 1-2).Book buyers'embrace sow the seeds for regional fiscal independence. of"Britishness"as a participatory,democratic I argue that the Proposal's dietary motif may identity was figured in the "distinct authorial have persuaded them to resist the Crown's persona"of the novelist,a synecdoche for a demands that it enact perpetual revenues liberal bourgeois self capable of acquiring do- earmarked to pay the debt.The luxury taxes mestic propriety through the performance of and budgetary procedures that they adopted, politeness(Ingrassia 81). I contend,could have been responses to those This article intervenes in these studies by in Swift's text.I make the case for these possi- extending their critique to the problem of em- bilities by examining three contexts:the pam- pire,asking how this British cultural produc- phlet's intertextual relation to contemporary tion was underwritten by colonials'resources anglophone satire,the immediate exigencies and ability to appropriate those resources for for its production in Dublin,and its reception their own nationalist projects.By doing so,it by British and Anglo-Irish readers. This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://aboutjstor.org/terms
12 2.3 Sean Moore 681 transcendent nation (Hardt and Negri 87-88). Women's bodies, as Charlotte Sussman has explained, ensured this mechanism by repro ducing armies of loyal subjects whose taxed consumption would pay interest and principal on investment in the nation (104-06). These developments may suggest that national debts are "even more fundamental to the fictional or ideological creation and maintenance of the imagined communities of modern nation-states than ... literary can ons," but it is not likely that this new form of government could have achieved hegemony without the simultaneous rise of a national aesthetic (Brantlinger 20). New economic critics of the professionalization of author ship and the textuality of money have argued that the novel, a genre inventing the domestic space of the home as the interior conscience of the nation, performed this function. The print trade, in their view, was similar to the ex change of commodities in that the velocity of transfers of provenance over both books and currency governed how they were appraised (Lynch 81). The purely fictional worth of the new paper money created a crisis of judgment resolved by the novel's capacity to serve "as an ideological regrounding of intrinsic value" in its depiction of "the home and companion ate marriage" as instantiations of the "real" (Thompson 21-22). Authority over assessing "undifferentiated tokens of epistemological opacity" like currency and books devolved to readers (Sherman 1-2). Book buyers' embrace of "Britishness" as a participatory, democratic identity was figured in the "distinct authorial persona" of the novelist, a synecdoche for a liberal bourgeois self capable of acquiring do mestic propriety through the performance of politeness (Ingrassia 81). This article intervenes in these studies by extending their critique to the problem of em pire, asking how this British cultural produc tion was underwritten by colonials' resources and ability to appropriate those resources for their own nationalist projects. By doing so, it models the new economic criticism's potential to step beyond postcolonial and Marxist criti cism and imagines how political and cultural concerns may be linked to economic analy sis. It makes this claim on the basis of early modern political philosophy, which had es tablished that language and money were con sidered homologous representations of state authority (Hawkes 19). The sign, in the sphere of the media, censorship, and publicity, se cured the value ofthe currency by promoting the reputation ofthe state and the legitimacy of its constitutional functions, a necessity if government were to guarantee the trans parency of all contracts, public and private, with a sound legal tender. The indivisibility of these aspects of sovereignty was highly rarefied in the eyes of dispossessed colonials, who saw how the British fiscal-military state substituted an abstract commodity?national identity circulated in literature?for the mate rial resources it alienated to reproduce itself. Ireland's debt, like England's, was the ide ological foundation ofthe Anglo-Irish Protes tant nation. This colonial caste, a hybrid entity caught between the natives it governed and the metropolis to which it was subject, soon learned to appropriate the empire's homolo gies of finance, language, and law to protect its investment and claim its parliament's right to regulate Ireland's economy. Members of this caste mobilized the Dublin press for the pro duction of domestic cultural capital that would sow the seeds for regional fiscal independence. I argue that the Proposal's dietary motif may have persuaded them to resist the Crown's demands that it enact perpetual revenues earmarked to pay the debt. The luxury taxes and budgetary procedures that they adopted, I contend, could have been responses to those in Swift's text. I make the case for these possi bilities by examining three contexts: the pam phlet's intertextual relation to contemporary anglophone satire, the immediate exigencies for its production in Dublin, and its reception by British and Anglo-Irish readers. This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
682 Devouring Posterity:A Modest Proposal,Empire,and Ireland's"Debt of the Nation" PMLA demolish'd,”coffeehouses supply a“sufficient Stock"of writing to sustain the economy and My claim that the new economic criticism government.A Modest Defence's reproductive has the potential to fuse political,cultural, theme,in short,dissolves the "distinction be- and economic analyses is based on Swift's lit- tween sexual pleasure and business"(Mandell eral and metonymic uses of motherhood in 112),suggesting that both biological mothers A Modest Proposal.When his narrator opens and maternal printers provide the income- by calling attention to "Beggars of the Female generating progeny necessary to maintain Sex,followed by three,four,or six children," material and political investment in the he seems to be describing the very real fam- fiscal-military state.The Dublin print indus- ine conditions of the late 1720s(Prose Works try seems to have found this idea appealing in 12:109).As he starts to discuss"a Child,just its efforts to forge Anglo-Irish sovereignty. dropt from its dam"and the prevention of Accordingly,Swift's dialogue with the "voluntary Abortions,"however,he shifts to a British book trade is of central importance figural register familiar to book-trade profes- when reading A Modest Proposal's discourse sionals,especially those who had read Ber- on public finance.Swift was a member of the nard Mandeville's A Modest Defence of Public Scriblerus Club,an informal group of Tory Stews of 1724.Mandeville's defense satirized opposition writers whose satire targeted the ideas for converting vice into new revenues Whig ruling regime.The Scriblerians despised by proposing a prostitution tax,arguing that Robert Walpole,the Whig prime minister,be- 610,000 could be raised by a single public cause they thought his machinations in public brothel(14).The "lewdness"of this project of finance-his establishment of a sinking fund sexual exchange,however,is explained not as to pay off the national debt,his involvement a female sin but as one indulged by prostitute with the South Sea Bubble,and his taxpayer male writers who“want a Dinner'”and hope bailout of major shareholders in the South Sea for the"“Adoption'”of their writings by“bright Company-were signs of corruption incom- Noblemen"(pref.).The narrator nakedly re- patible with virtuous government (Nicholson fers to the manuscript before the reader as a 103).By the late 1720s,Swift's Gulliver's Trav- “Foundling''who was“dropt'”at the reader's els,John Gay's Beggar's Opera,and Alexander door because a legitimate press-"the Midwife Pope's Dunciad had combined to expose Wal- of a Printer'”-“was unwilling to help bring it pole's perversion of the constitution.A letter into the World,but upon that Condition...of from Swift to Gay in March 1728 discusses the my openly Fathering it"(pref.).This series of success of their coordinated attack:"The Beg- double entendres intimates that the printing gers Opera hath knockt down Gulliver,I hope press is the mother of the book and the writer to see Popes Dullness knock down the Beggers its father,invoking the platonic concepts of Opera,but not till it hath fully done its Jobb the“death of the author'”and the“orphaned ..writing two or three Such trifles every year text"that Swift himself had explored in A to expose vice and make people laugh with Tale of a Tub(Barthes 147;Derrida 76;Plato innocency does more publick Service than 523;Swift,Tale 34).A Modest Proposal closely all the Ministers of State from Adam to Wal- mimics A Modest Defence's style to the extent pol"(Swift,Correspondence 278).These satires that it could be interpreted as a response to served as both partisan political critiques and Mandeville's request that the "Hibernian literary commodities in the highly profitable Stallion”should“Speak”(pref).It appears culture wars of those years.It has been argued to appropriate his notion that,even in an that as a collective partisan effort,this circle's era when the South Sea Company "has been writings were not so much damning modern This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about jstor.org/terms
682 Devouring Posterity: A Modest Proposal, Empire, and Ireland's "Debt of the Nation" PMLA ['] My claim that the new economic criticism has the potential to fuse political, cultural, and economic analyses is based on Swift's lit eral and metonymic uses of motherhood in A Modest Proposal. When his narrator opens by calling attention to "Beggars of the Female Sex, followed by three, four, or six children," he seems to be describing the very real fam ine conditions of the late 1720s (Prose Works 12: 109). As he starts to discuss "a Child, just dr opt from its dam" and the prevention of "voluntary Abortions," however, he shifts to a figural register familiar to book-trade profes sionals, especially those who had read Ber nard Mandeville's A Modest Defence of Public Stews of 1724. Mandeville's defense satirized ideas for converting vice into new revenues by proposing a prostitution tax, arguing that ?10,000 could be raised by a single public brothel (14). The "lewdness" of this project of sexual exchange, however, is explained not as a female sin but as one indulged by prostitute male writers who "want a Dinner" and hope for the "Adoption" of their writings by "bright Noblemen" (pref.). The narrator nakedly re fers to the manuscript before the reader as a "Foundling" who was "dropt" at the reader's door because a legitimate press?"the Midwife of a Printer"?"was unwilling to help bring it into the World, but upon that Condition ... of my openly Fathering it" (pref.). This series of double entendres intimates that the printing press is the mother of the book and the writer its father, invoking the platonic concepts of the "death of the author" and the "orphaned text" that Swift himself had explored in A Tale of a Tub (Barthes 147; Derrida 76; Plato 523; Swift, Tale 34). A Modest Proposal closely mimics A Modest Defences style to the extent that it could be interpreted as a response to Mandeville's request that the "Hibernian Stallion" should "Speak" (pref.). It appears to appropriate his notion that, even in an era when the South Sea Company "has been demolish'd," coffeehouses supply a "sufficient Stock" of writing to sustain the economy and government. A Modest Defences reproductive theme, in short, dissolves the "distinction be tween sexual pleasure and business" (Mandell 112), suggesting that both biological mothers and maternal printers provide the income generating progeny necessary to maintain material and political investment in the fiscal-military state. The Dublin print indus try seems to have found this idea appealing in its efforts to forge Anglo-Irish sovereignty. Accordingly, Swift's dialogue with the British book trade is of central importance when reading A Modest Proposal's discourse on public finance. Swift was a member of the Scriblerus Club, an informal group of Tory opposition writers whose satire targeted the Whig ruling regime. The Scriblerians despised Robert Walpole, the Whig prime minister, be cause they thought his machinations in public finance?his establishment of a sinking fund to pay off the national debt, his involvement with the South Sea Bubble, and his taxpayer bailout of major shareholders in the South Sea Company?were signs of corruption incom patible with virtuous government (Nicholson 103). By the late 1720s, Swift's Gullivers Trav els, John Gay's Beggars Opera, and Alexander Pope's Dunciad had combined to expose Wal pole's perversion of the constitution. A letter from Swift to Gay in March 1728 discusses the success of their coordinated attack: "The Beg gers Opera hath knockt down Gulliver, I hope to see Popes Dullness knock down the Beggers Opera, but not till it hath fully done its Jobb ... writing two or three Such trifles every year to expose vice and make people laugh with innocency does more publick Service than all the Ministers of State from Adam to Wal pol" (Swift, Correspondence 278). These satires served as both partisan political critiques and literary commodities in the highly profitable culture wars of those years. It has been argued that as a collective partisan effort, this circle's writings were not so much damning modern This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms