Archbishop King’s Some Observations on Taxes, and the ‘Colonial Drain’

Abstract

In 1715/16 Archbishop William King of Dublin used his experience as a Lord Justice during 1714-15 to write out a detailed case arguing that Ireland already paid more than its fair share of taxes to the Kingdom. In later years King became known as the leader of the Irish ‘nationals’ and his espousal of Irish economic nationalism later became embodied in the writings of Jonathan Swift. The manuscript, Some Observations on the Taxes paid by Ireland, was circulated among some ‘friends’ and in 1726 King even tried to use it to sway the views of Lord Chancellor Peter King in England. It can be considered the first sustained argument about a position that has subsequently become famous as the ‘colonial drain’. King was not well-read in the economics of his day, showing no sign s of reading Davenant and Petty after the 1690’s. The Observations are the fruit of acute observation and concern for Ireland. They deserve wider circulation as a good example of the economic thoughts of a senior administrator concerned about poverty, but involved in an economic policy that he tried to reform and was eventually to abjure.