‘Work abounded, wages rose’: Political Economy in Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley and Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy

Abstract

This article discusses Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley as a response to ‘The Hill and the Valley’, one of Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy. Whereas ‘The Hill and the Valley’ is informed by a belief that following the rules of political economy can solve all social problems of the day, Shirley, for all its similarities to Martineau’s novella, reflects different, less unambiguously affirmative attitudes to capitalism and political economy. Even the novel’s happy ending, which brings prosperity and settles social conflicts in Yorkshire, has too much of a fairy tale quality to convince the reader of the beneficial influence of the free market economy.