Tracts of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association

Hardback. Fair. Standard of Freedom, London, 1851; 8vo, pp vii (being prelims such as information on the Association and a list of contents), [552]; original brown cloth, spine gilt, binding now shabby and worn; internally generally firm and clean although rather browned, particularly in the latter half of the book; the (blank) prelims are loose, the last sheet of the last tract is damaged at the top outer corner with some loss including to a few words on the verso and the final end paper is missing. The Association was instituted in April 1848 and was later described by W N Calkins in his essay in the "Economic History Review" as "the most persistent and single-minded free trade body England had ever known". Its first president was Robertson Gladstone, elder brother of William Ewart, a merchant and banker who became Mayor of Liverpool when he was only 37. The 35 tracts in this volume, generally of 16pp each, focus on supporting "the most rigid economy in the expenditure of the Government consistent with due efficiency ... in the public service", "a simple and equitable system of direct taxation fairly levied on property and income ... in lieu of the present unequal, complicated, and expensively collected duties upon commodities" and in doing so insisting on disowning political partisanship and welcoming "men of all political parties". Topics include pensions, the colonies, a contribution by Richard Cobden on the Budget, the Crown Estates, "The Dead Weight of the Army", the Navy, a speech by Sir William Molesworth (a Radical MP and later Secretary for the Colonies in the Aberdeen government) on colonial expenditure and government, slave trade abolition expenditure, direct taxation and the "Evils of Indirect taxation", the fiscal system and many more contributions, speeches and comments.