John Atkinson Hobson (commonly known as John
A. Hobson or J. A. Hobson; 6 July 1858 – 1
April 1940), was an English economist, social
scientist and critic of imperialism, widely
popular as a lecturer and writer.
== Life ==
Hobson was born in Derby, the son of William
Hobson, "a rather prosperous newspaper proprietor",
and Josephine Atkinson. He was the brother
of the mathematician Ernest William Hobson.
He studied at Derby School and Lincoln College,
Oxford, afterwards teaching classics and English
literature at schools in Faversham and Exeter.
When Hobson relocated to London in 1887, England
was in the midst of a major economic depression.
While classical economics was at a loss to
explain the vicious business cycles, London
had many societies that proposed alternatives.
While living in London, Hobson was exposed
to the Social Democrats and Henry Mayers Hyndman,
Christian Socialists, and Henry George's Single-tax
system. He befriended several of the prominent
Fabians who would found the London School
of Economics, some of whom he had known at
Oxford. However, none of these groups proved
persuasive enough for Hobson; rather it was
his collaboration with a friend, the famous
businessman and mountain climber Albert F.
Mummery, that would produce Hobson's contribution
to economics: the theory of underconsumption.
First described by Mummery and Hobson in the
1889 book Physiology of Industry, underconsumption
was a scathing criticism of Say's law and
classical economics' emphasis on thrift. The
forwardness of the book's conclusions discredited
Hobson among the professional economics community.
Ultimately he was excluded from the academic
community.
During the very late 19th century his notable
works included Problems of Poverty (1891),
Evolution of Modern Capitalism (1894), Problem
of the Unemployed (1896) and John Ruskin:
Social Reformer (1898). They developed Hobson's
famous critique of the classical theory of
rent and his proposed generalization anticipated
the Neoclassical "marginal productivity" theory
of distribution.
Soon after this period Hobson was recruited
by the editor of the newspaper The Manchester
Guardian to be their South African correspondent.
During his coverage of the Second Boer War,
Hobson began to form the idea that imperialism
was the direct result of the expanding forces
of modern capitalism. He believed the mine
owners, with Cecil Rhodes, who wanted control
of the Transvaal, in the vanguard, were manipulating
the British into fighting the Boers so that
they could maximize their profits from mining.
His return to England was marked by his strong
condemnation of the conflict.
His publications during the next few years
demonstrated an exploration of the associations
between imperialism and international conflict.
These works included War in South Africa (1900)
and Psychology of Jingoism (1901). In what
is arguably his magnum opus, Imperialism (1902),
he espoused the opinion that imperial expansion
is driven by a search for new markets and
investment opportunities overseas. Imperialism
gained Hobson an international reputation,
and influenced such notable thinkers as Vladimir
Lenin and Leon Trotsky, and Hannah Arendt's
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).
Hobson wrote for several other journals before
writing his next major work, The Industrial
System (1909). In this tract he argued that
maldistribution of income resulted, through
oversaving and underconsumption, in unemployment
and that the remedy was in eradicating the
"surplus" by the redistribution of income
by taxation and the nationalization of monopolies.
Hobson's opposition to the First World War
caused him to join the Union of Democratic
Control. His advocacy for the formation of
a world political body to prevent wars can
be found clearly in his piece Towards International
Government (1914). However, he was staunchly
opposed to the League of Nations.
In 1919 Hobson joined the Independent Labour
Party. This was soon followed by writings
for socialist publications such as the New
Leader, the Socialist Review and the New Statesman.
During this period it became clear that Hobson
favoured capitalist reformation over communist
revolution. He was a notable critic of the
Labour Government of 1929.
During the later years of his life, Hobson
published his autobiography, Confessions of
an Economic Heretic (1938).
== Commentary on Hobson ==
R. H. Tawney wrote the following in The Acquisitive
Society (1920):
The greater part of modern property has been
attenuated to a pecuniary lien or bond on
the product of industry which carries with
it a right to payment, but which is normally
valued precisely because it relieves the owner
from any obligation to perform a positive
or constructive function. Such property may
be called passive property, or property for
acquisition, for exploitation, or for power....
It is questionable, however, whether economists
shall call it "Property" at all, and not rather,
as Mr. Hobson has suggested, "Improperty,"
since it is not identical with the rights
which secure the owner the produce of his
toil, but is opposite of them.
V.I. Lenin, in Imperialism, the Highest Stage
of Capitalism (1916)—which was probably
his most influential work on later Marxian
scholarship—made use of Hobson's Imperialism
extensively, remarking in the preface "I made
use of the principal English work, Imperialism,
J. A. Hobson's book, with all the care that,
in my opinion, that work deserves." In the
work itself—despite disagreeing with Hobson's
liberal politics—Lenin repeatedly cites
Hobson's interpretation of imperialism approvingly;
for example:
We see that Kautsky, while claiming that he
continues to advocate Marxism, as a matter
of fact takes a step backward compared with
the social-liberal Hobson, who more correctly
takes into account two “historically concrete”
... features of modern imperialism: (1) the
competition between several imperialisms,
and (2) the predominance of the financier
over the merchant.
== Criticism ==
Historians Peter Duignan and Lewis H. Gann
argue that Hobson had an enormous influence
in the early 20th century that caused widespread
distrust of imperialism:
Hobson's ideas were not entirely original;
however his hatred of moneyed men and monopolies,
his loathing of secret compacts and public
bluster, fused all existing indictments of
imperialism into one coherent system....His
ideas influenced German nationalist opponents
of the British Empire as well as French Anglophobes
and Marxists; they colored the thoughts of
American liberals and isolationist critics
of colonialism. In days to come they were
to contribute to American distrust of Western
Europe and of the British Empire. Hobson helped
make the British averse to the exercise of
colonial rule; he provided indigenous nationalists
in Asia and Africa with the ammunition to
resist rule from Europe.
Later historians would attack Hobson, and
the Marxist theories of imperialism he influenced.
Notably, John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson
in their 1953 article The Imperialism of Free
Trade would argue that Hobson placed too much
emphasis on the role of formal empire and
directly ruled colonial possessions, not taking
into account the significance of trading power,
political influence and informal imperialism.
They also argued that the difference in British
foreign policy that Hobson observed between
the mid-19th-century indifference to empire
that accompanied free market economics, and
the later intense imperialism after 1870,
was not a reality.
== Book-length works ==
== See also ==
Theories of New Imperialism for an account
of Hobson's theories on imperialism.
== References and sources ==
References
SourcesSimkin, John. "J. A. Hobson".
Allett, John "New Liberalism: The Political
Economy of J. A. Hobson"
Claeys, Gregory. Imperial Sceptics. British
Critics of Empire 1850-1920 (2010) Cambridge
University Press. Ch. 3.
Hobson, John Atkinson (1858–1940), social
theorist and economist by Michael Freeden
in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(2004)
Donald Markwell, John Maynard Keynes and International
Relations: Economic Paths to War and Peace,
Oxford University Press (2006).
Keynes, John Maynard, The General Theory of
Employment, Interest and Money (1936) Macmillan
& Co.
Hobson is also referred to in the song "Light
Pollution" by popular American folk band Bright
Eyes which opens with the lines "John A. Hobson
was a good man, he used to lend me books and
mic stands, he even got me a subscription
to the socialist review."
== External links ==
Works by John A. Hobson at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about John A. Hobson at Internet
Archive
http://www.spartacus-educational.com/TUhobson.htm
Hobson Internet Archive Key site for Hobson
texts, including the full text of Imperialism.
Excerpts from Imperialism. [1]
John A. Hobson, Imperialism - extracts (1902)
