Economics as a Dismal Science in Occasional Discourse of the Negro Question by Thomas Carlyle

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Economics as a Dismal Science in Occasional Discourse of the Negro Question by Thomas Carlyle

In 1849 Carlyle published an article Occasional Discourse of the Negro Question. It was a precursor to Latter Day Pamphlets, which analyzed political questions. The Nigger Question concerned the condition of ex-slaves on the West Indian sugar plantations and suggested that they should be made to work harder. Carlyle thought that excess demand for food in Britain of those days could be contended, if black people of these rich lands worked more. I quote" And beatiful Blacks sitting there up to ears in pumpkins, and doleful Whites sitting here without potatoes to eat". Thomas Carlyle thought that immigration of more laborers wouldn't solve the existing food problem. This would just end in even greater consumption. The only solution he could suggest for this question was to increase labor hours. Referring to Political Economy and Social Science, Carlyle in his essay "the Nigger Question" describes this science as the dismal one. He calls it:

"Not a gay science; I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate, and indeed quiet abject and distressing one; what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science". Carlyle, T. (1904). Critical and Miscellaneous essays. The Nigger Question, 354. New York: Charles Scribner's sons.

The quote of the dismal science is also mentioned in Thomas Carlyle's Latter Day Pamphlets, published in 1850. In fact, the quote in these Pamphlets is used not in directly way, like in "The Nigger Question". It just refers to experts of the economics science. Speech of the British Prime Minister to his Pauper Populations and the Respectable Professors of the Dismal Science includes such phrases:

 "Respectable Professors of the Dismal Science, soft you a little. Alas, I know what you would say".

 " Professors of the Dismal Science, I percieve that the length of your tether is now pretty well run; and that I must request you to talk a little lower in future". Carlyle, T. (1903). Latter Day Pamphlets. No. I The Present Time, 44-45. New York: Charles Scribner's sons.

The Pamphlet No. IV " The New Downing Street" explain us how the European Governments came to wreck for want of Intellect. "The dismal science" phrase is mentioned in a similar way here. Speaking about the Constitutions of the colonies Thomas Carlyle apply to some authorities as to Professors of the dismal science:

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