Thomas Spence’s meat for pigs: satire, utopia, and radical agrarianism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thomas Spence, arguably one of the most important radical thinkers of the 1790s, was adept in his use of literary forms. Arising from the conviction that private property in land is the source of most inequities in society, his central idea was that land ownership should be vested in parochial government, with each household paying rent but no taxes, and receiving a return on the portion of the rents not used for public services. Throughout his career, especially from 1793 to 1803, he wrote as a strong satirist and utopian thinker in a stream of pamphlets advancing his plan. This essay discusses the satiric strategies Spence employed against large landholders and aristocrats—violent rhetoric, inversion of biblical accounts, and undermining of conventional forms through parody. It concludes by considering parallels between Spence’s satiric and utopian thought and that of William Morris a century later.