BOWEN-BRANDS BOWEN, FRANCIS, born 1811, died 1890; he graduated from Harvard College in 1833; was instructor there from 1833 to 1847, and professor in Harvard University from 1853 to 1889. Professor Bowen's interests and attainments were great and varied. He wrote not only on economic topics, but on history, politics, the classics, and most of all on the subject connected with his professorship -philosophy. He was editor of the North American Review from 1843 to 1854, and in that capacity, as well as in independent publications, gave the fruits of a vigorous intellect and a remarkable industry. His economic writings in the main are in the nature of text-books, stating and illustrating the doctrines of the classic economists. But on the subject of international trade he diverged, and reasoned in favour of the doctrine of protection. He laid stress on the need of national independence, and of aiding young industries; and he made application also of MILL's reasoning as to the possible effects of duties on the play of international demand. On this subject, as on all he touched, he was clear, positive, and effective, and his reasoning is much above the level of that usually adduced against the principle of free trade. The larger writings of F. Bowen on economics were: Principles of Political Economy, Boston, 1856; American Political Economy, New York, 1870. F. W. T. BOXHORN, MARCUS ZUERIUS, born 1602 (or 1612) at Bergen-op-Zoom (North Brabant), was professor of rhetoric at the university of Leyden, 1632; professor of history there, 1648; and died 1653. He wrote no books exclusively on economics, but dealt with economic subjects in the following works : 1st, Institutiones politica, Lipsia, 1650; following editions (Haga Comitis, 1668, Ultrajecti 1702). Cum Commentariis eiusdem et observationibus Georgii Hornii (his successor at the university). -2d, Disquisitiones politica, i.e. 60 casus politici ex omni historia selecti (Haga Comitis, 1650).—3d, Commentariolus de Statu confœderatarum prorinciarum Belgii (2d. ed. 1650), and an extract of it: Reipublicæ Batavica brevis et accurata descriptio. -In a special work, Dissertatio de Trapezitis, vulgo Longobardis, qui in fœderato Belgio Mensas fænebres exercent (Lugd. Bat. 1640), Boxhorn treated the question of interest. According to him a principal duty of government is the promoting of industry, not only by indirect ways (privilegiis, itinerum securitate, etc.), but by direct ones too, guilds preventing merchandise from deteriorating, and therefore trade from declining. A well-regulated currency is also of extreme importance. His ideas on taxes are, considering his date, remarkable. Taxes should be levied conveniently, ought to be proportionate to the wealth of the contributors, and may be used as a means even to promote morality. They should never be imposed on articles of export except on those nowhere else obtainable. A. F. V. L. BOYCOTTING, an expression of recent | 175 Cap origin, and derived from the name of Captain Boycott, who was the first known person subjected to the treatment indicated by it. tain Boycott (the name is sometimes written Boycatt) was, in 1880, living at Lough Mask House, County Mayo, as land agent to Lord Erne, an Irish nobleman. The circumstances which gave rise to the term occurred during the land agitation of 1880-1881. A boycotted person is cut off from all intercourse with his neighbours; nobody is allowed to take his land, to work for him, to supply him with goods, or to help or assist him in any way. This treatment has in many districts of Ireland been applied to landlords, who, in the opinion of the agrarian association by which it is directed, have been harsh to their tenants; or to persons who have taken farms the former tenants of which had been evicted; or generally to persons who in their dealings with landlords have not conformed to the instructions laid down by the association to the power of which the tenant farmers of the district submit. Persons who combine to compel or induce any one to take part in the process of boycotting may under the general criminal law be subject to a prosecution for conspiracy, and, in so far as this is the case, they may in a district proclaimed under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, 1887, be tried by a court of summary jurisdiction (50 & 51 Vict. c. 20 § 2 [1]). [The word boycotting is now frequently used in a wider sense, meaning simply avoiding, holding aloof from, and in that sense it has also been introduced into foreign languages (German, boykottiren; French, boycottier). For the boycott in America see article, Economic Journal, vol. i. No. 1. The Boycott as an Element in Trade Disputes, by John Burnett.] E. S. BRADLAUGH, CHARLES (born 1833, died 1891). Bradlaugh was best known as a radical reformer, secularist, and neo-Malthusian. But towards the end of his life, when he was allowed to take his seat in the House of Commons for Northampton, and his force of intellect received fair scope, he confined himself mainly to political work, and especially to questions affecting labour, finance, and Indian government. Though he never read for the bar, he had a wide and accurate knowledge of law; and, throughout his whole career as an agitator, he always (like COBBETT) strove to keep every movement in which he was concerned within the bounds of strict legality. He was a staunch free-trader and individualist; and his latest published writing was in opposition to the proposal for a legal restriction of the hours of adult labour. J. B. BRANDS AND OTHER CERTIFICATES OF QUALITY, GOVERNMENT. The most important case in which the British government gives a guarantee of the quality of an article of commerce is that of the crown brand on barrels of herrings cured in Scotland. Till 1830 a bounty was paid on barrels which were branded as coming up to a certain standard of quality, and after the bounty was abolished the practice of branding barrels which reached the standard continued. In 1856 Messrs. Bonamy PRICE and F. St. John, and Capt. B. J. Sulivan, were commissioned to inquire whether it would be better to abolish the brand or charge a fee for it, as the Treasury was no longer willing to pay for the inspection which it involved. Messrs. Price and St. John (Captain Sulivan dissenting) recommended that it should be maintained and 4d. a barrel charged for it. This plan was adopted. In 1881 a committee of the House of Commons made an exhaustive inquiry as to its effects, and by a large majority reported in favour of maintaining it. Opponents of the brand say that it is inimical to improvements in curing, that it encourages speculation, and that, though it affords no real guarantee, curers are obliged to apply for it by the unfounded prejudices of their continental customers, which would necessarily disappear with its abolition. Its supporters maintain that it enables small and little-known curers to compete with great houses, and prevents frauds, and they add that as application for the brand is purely voluntary, branding would fall into disuse if it were really of no value. The arrangements of the Cork butter market necessitate the testing and branding of butter by an official inspector, a system condemned by the royal commission on agriculture in 1881. Under acts of parliament passed in 1864, 1871, and 1874, all chain-cables and anchors sold for British ships have to undergo an official test and obtain the official stamp. Gun barrels are subject to similar regulations, and many gold and silver articles cannot legally be sold without the hall mark. In all ordinary cases the buyers are obviously the best judges of the kind of commodity they want, and their demand suffices to cause its production and in many cases its progressive improvement in quality. "CAVEAT EMPTOR (q.v.) is the sound general rule economically and socially as well as legally (Farrer, State in Relation to Trade, p. 150). A government certificate is likely to be of value only when it certifies to quite definite facts which are not easily ascertainable by the buyers. It is admitted by nearly every one to be useful in the case of coins, which are pieces of metal certified by a government stamp to be of a certain weight and quality. (See ADMINISTRATION; LAISSEZ FAIRE.) CONDITIONING ; [Report on the Fishery Board of Scotland, Parl. Papers, 1857 (65 Sess. 1), xv. 39.-Report on Herring Brand (Scotland), Parl. Papers, 1881, 293, ix. 1.-T. H. Farrer, The State in Relation to Trade, pp. 145 to 151.-J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, bk. v. ch. xi. §§ 7 and 8.] E. C. BRASSAGE. A charge made for coining, sometimes called a seigneuriage. The word means "strictly the stirring in the furnace of the molten metals, and next the allowance made to the individual by whom the operations of coining were farmed" (Paper by J. B. Martin "Seigneuriage and Mint Charges" (Journal, Institute of Bankers, April, 1884). No charges of this description are made at the royal mint in England, though they are made at the branches of the mint at Sydney and Melbourne (see MINT). In England the Bank of England, by arrangement with the government, buys gold at £3 17 9 per standard ounce, and sells again at £3:17:104. In France, a charge exists of 6.70 frs. per kilo (= .0025) equivalent to about d. per £ sterling, the corresponding expense in England, covered by the arrangement made with the bank named above, being estimated at d. per £. The advisability, or otherwise, of making such a charge appears to be an open question which can best be decided by those immediately concerned. ["Seigneuriage and Mint Charges," by J. B. Martin, Journal of the Institute of Bankers, April 1884.-Seigniorage and Charge for Coining, Ernest Seyd, 1868.-Arbitrages et Parités, Ott. Haupt, 1883. Report, International Coinage Commission, 1868.-Mint Reports, etc.] BRASSEY, THOMAS (1805-1870), born in Cheshire, where his family had flourished for six centuries, illustrated an ancient house by his distinguished success in the new calling of railway contractor. In his dealings with labourers in different parts of the world-employing the English navvy at 3s. 6d., the Indian coolie at 6d. a day-Brassey had an unrivalled opportunity of verifying the truth that the cost of labour to the employer is not proportioned to the amount of daily wages. He is even said to have found "that for the same sum of money the same amount of work was everywhere performed" (Work and Wages, by Mr. Thomas (now Lord) Brassey, ch. iii.; Life and Labours of Mr. Brassey, by Sir Arthur Helps, ch. v., end). But this proposition, understood exactly, is not only, as CAIRNES points out (Leading Principles, pt. ii. ch. iii. § 7) a priori improbable, but inconsistent with several of Brassey's experiences. With respect to many other questions, the comparative efficiency of labour in different countries, the effect of short hours on efficiency, the alleged deterioration of the labourer-the experiences of Brassey recorded by his son in the work referred to are valuable to the economist. Mr. Frederick Harrison's interpretation of the facts stated by Lord Brassey is remarkable (Review of Work and Wages in the Fortnightly Review for 1872). [For the particulars of Brassey's noble and beneficent life, see Sir Arthur Helps's Life and Labours of Mr. Brassey.] F. Y. E. BRAY, CHARLES (1811-1884) born at Coventry, was a ribbon manufacturer in that city, but BRAY-BRECK retired from that business in 1856. From his youth upwards Bray had been active in social and educational reforms; and in his principal work he proceeded on the lines of OWEN and CARLYLE, advocating Co-OPERATION and organisation of labour against COMPETITION. See the 2d vol. of The Philosophy of Necessity; or, The Law of Consequences, as applicable to Mental, Moral, and Social Science, by Charles Bray, London, 1841, pp. 301-389, 2d ed. 1863, 3d, 1889. The appendix to this work has been published separately in 1844 (An Outline of the various Social Systems and Communities which have been founded on the Principle of Co-operation); this was written by his sister-in-law, Mary Hennell (d. 1843), and gives valuable information on socialistic doctrines in England. Bray's other works concerning social economy are: Address to the Working Classes on the Education of the Body, 1837 (see his autobiography, Phases of Opinion and Experience during a Long Life, 1884, ch. vi. and vii.) An Essay upon the Union of Agriculture and Manufactures, and upon the Organisation of Industry, 1844, and two papers read before the British Association for the Advancement of Social Science, October 1857 : The Industrial Employment of Women, and The Income of the Kingdom, and the Mode of its Distribution, in which he computes that oneseventh of the population possess two-thirds of the annual income. [Holyoake, The History of Co-operation in England, 1875, vol. i. p. 17, 329n.-A. Menger, Las Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag, 1886, p. 58.] S. B. 177 of Might and the Age of Right (Leeds, J. B. BREACH OF TRUST (Scots criminal law term). Fraudulent appropriation by trustee, or failure in duty by official, etc. BRAY, J. F., early in 19th century, is the author of Labour's Wrongs and Labour's BREACH OF TRUST. Any act or omisRemedy; or, the Age of Might and the Age of sion on the part of a trustee violating the conRight, Leeds, 1839. He was a follower of ditions of the trust or the rules of law concernOWEN and Thomson; his book tries to prove ing the investment or administration of trust "that all those who perform equality of labour property. The liability of trustees for breach ought likewise to receive equality of reward of trust is a very stringent one, but the (p. 30), and though he admits that even this Trustee Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 59) has does not involve perfect justice, that "such relaxed it to a certain extent. It is, for equality is infinitely more just than the mode of instance, the rule that advances on mortgage of rewarding labour under the present system” (p. freehold property must not exceed two-thirds of 206). Impressed by the modern growth of joint- the value of the mortgaged property. Accordstock companies, Bray proposes a "joint-stocking to the former law trustees having once gone modification of society, admitting of individual property in productions in connection with a common property in productive powers" (p. 194), and proposes a paper and pottery currency, whose foundation is labour, in order "to secure the public against any other variations in the value of the currency than those to which the standard itself is subject" (pp. 143, 198). This book is, notwithstanding all illusions, written in a remarkably lively style. [Holyoake, The History of Co-operation in England, 1875, vol. i. p. 224.-A. Menger, Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag, 1886, pp. 58, 94 (corrects the statements given in K. Marx, La misère de la Philosophie, 1847, p. 62).] S. B. In Bray's work, mentioned above, Labour's Wrongs and Labour's Remedy, or the Age beyond the limit were liable for whatever loss might subsequently have been incurred; since the date of the new act they cannot be called upon to replace more than the difference between the amount which they would have been authorised to advance and the amount actually lent. The trustees are also placed in a more favourable position with regard to unauthorised investments made at the request or with the consent of a beneficiary. In the case of express trusts the trustees were not authorised to plead any statute of LIMITATIONS, but they may now, in the absence of fraud or misappropriation, rely on the statute. E. S. BRECK, SAMUEL, was born in 1771 in Boston and afterwards settled in Philadelphia. He wrote in 1843 a small pamphlet, Historical Sketch N 178 BREHON LAW-BREWSTER of Continental Paper Money, Philadelphia, pp. 40. In this he attempts to demonstrate that the non-redemption of the paper money after the revolution acted as a moderate tax by reason of its gradual depreciation, and that the issue was not so unfortunate as is generally claimed. Throughout his life-in congress and in private -he took a decided stand in favour of internal improvements. For details see Memoir by J. Francis Fisher, Philadelphia, 1863, pp. 45. D. R. D. BREHON LAW. The Brehons were a hereditary class of judges in Ireland, to whom disputes were referred for arbitration, and whose decisions were regarded as binding, though there was no sanction to enforce them. It is probable, though by no means certain, that the Brehons were descended from the earlier Druids, who lost their priestly functions on the introduction of Christianity, but retained their judicial power. The decisions of the Brehons formed a vast mass of customary law, a knowledge of which was the exclusive property of the class. Gradually this law was reduced to writing, and has been preserved to us in the Senchus Mor and the Book of Aicill, which have been pub. lished in the Irish Rolls Series. The Brehon law throws great light on the important part played by consanguinity in the formation of society. The unit of the social system in Ireland was the tuath or tribe, consisting of the real or supposed descendants of a common ancestor. The tribe owned a district of land, which was unequally distributed for occupation among its free members. Rank, originally a matter of birth, had come to depend mainly upon wealth, and wealth was estimated not in land but in cattle. The authority of the tribal chief belonged to him, not as lord of the land, but because he supplied cattle to the poorer occupiers of tribal land. For this grant the recipient had to pay a rent either in kind or in service. The more cattle belonged to a flaith, or noble, the larger number of retainers could he possess, and the higher was his social position. The lowest freeman was the oc-aire, who possessed a cottage, and a right over the common pasture. If he could acquire ten cows he rose to the rank of bo-aire, or cow possessor. As time went on the nobles gradually seized the unoccupied portions of the tribal land, and the idea of private property supplanted the earlier theory of joint ownership. But a clear trace of the latter survived in the rule of succession, known as GAVELKIND (q.v.) On the death of the occupant of land, the estate passed neither to his eldest son nor to the joint or separate occupation of his children. On the contrary the land fell back into the common property of the tribe, and the chief made a redistribution of all the lands among the members. This custom is unquestionably due to the original idea that a tribe constituted a family, and that the whole kindred were joint-heirs of any individual member. But gavelkind did not apply to the succession to the lands of nobles, which was regulated, like the succession to the office of chief, by the custom of TANISTRY. By this custom a successor or tanist was elected by the members of the sept or tribe during the lifetime of the chief or noble. The object was to secure the succession of the fittest member of a family instead of merely the nearest blood relation. Both gavelkind and tanistry were disliked by the English rulers, as being less definite and orderly than the rule of PRIMOGENITURE. Under James I. they were abolished as "lewd and damnable customs.' From this time the Brehon law was jealously suppressed, and the | English legal system, which had hitherto been enforced only in the counties of the PALE was now applied to the whole of Ireland. [Ancient Laws of Ireland (Irish Rolls Series). -O'Curry, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish.-Maine, Early History of Institutions.— Richey, A Short History of the Irish People.] R. L. BREVI MANU TRADITIO. An expression used by medieval writers on Roman law to express the fictitious delivery which takes place, when a person who is in physical possession of another person's property acquires the ownership of the same by purchase or otherwise. BREWSTER, SIR FRANCIS (fl. 1674-1702), was in 1674 lord mayor of Dublin, and in 1698 appointed commissioner to inquire into the forfeited estates in Ireland. He wrote Essays on Trade and Navigation. In Five Parts-The First Part, London, 1695. They seem to be written with the design of supporting the Dutch against the growing commercial power of the French. He proposes a council of trades, a national bank, hospitals, working schools, and the naturalisation of foreign protestants, especially in Ireland; he makes objections to the projects of erecting free ports and recommends sumptuary laws. His statement that England upon an average of six years gained by Ireland two millions sterling per annum, and his denunciation of the oppressive treatment to which that country was subjected (p. 15 ff.) were strongly controverted by DAVENANT (see his Works, edited by Ch. Whitworth, vol. i. p. 377). His New Essay-s (sic) on Trade, 1702, make him rank among those pessimistic authors who constantly foresee the decline of trade (p. 2). Nevertheless he insists upon the necessity of allowing the exportation of wool, England being not able to work up two-thirds of its own, and forced "either to Burn or Export it" (p. 9). recommends manufactures as a means of employing the poor (p. 124). "I think him a great Man that employs Twenty Men at his Looms, and Five Hundred Spinners, and wonder He BRIGANTI-BRISSOT DE WARVILLE we have no more such in Parliament" (p. 11). He recognises the dangers of the money projects (p. 20), and of the stock-jobbing mania of his age (p. 30). In all other respects his mercantilist views are the same as in his first essays (see e.g. p. 41), and only his considerations on the advantage of a union between England and Ireland (pp. 66-115), with many statistical abstracts, may be considered as valuable. [Macleod, Dictionary of Pol. Econ., p. 284.] S. B. BRIGANTI, FILIPPO, born at Gallipoli 1725, died 1804. In 1780 he published, in two volumes, his Esame economico del sistema civile (viz. Economical Analysis of Society), which is really a refutation of the social doctrines of Mably, Rousseau, and LINGUET, particularly of their paradoxes concerning the obnoxiousness of commerce, industry, and intellectual progress. Briganti was a profound thinker, and had a vast fund of information. Discussing the advantages of exchange and commerce, he anticipates many of the views which are now advanced in this connection concerning sensations of pleasure and pain, and, in general the hedonistical calculus, as the basis of economical activity. In tracing the history of human progress and following it up in the history of agriculture, commerce, navigation, population, and intellectual and moral development, he shows himself to be possessed of a great store of information. His book, however, has lost its interest, because its principal object, viz. the refutation of Rousseau's theories, has likewise ceased to interest. M. P. BRIGHT, JOHN (b. 1811, d. 1889) M.P., president of the board of trade (1868-1870), eminent orator and statesman. The creation of a numerous proprietary in Ireland was eloquently advocated by Bright. The clauses in the Irish Land Bill of 1870, which facilitate the sale of land to tenants, are ascribed to his influence and associated with his name. The part which Bright played in the abolition of the corn laws is also memorable. But there are limits to the application of the idea of nonintervention which did not occur to him. He carried the principle of LAISSEZ-FAIRE so far as to oppose factory legislation; concerning which he thus defines his position-"I was opposed to all legislation restricting the work of adult men and women. I was in favour of legislation restricting the labour and guarding the health of children." [Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, edited by J. E. Thorold Rogers, 1868; Hansard, lxxiii. p. 1132, lxxxix. p. 1136, cxciv. p. 731, et passim ; Public Letters, edited by J. Leech, 1885.] F. Y. E. BRINDLEY, JAMES (born 1716, died 1772), an eminent engineer, celebrated for the construction of canals, of which the earliest and most famous, connecting Manchester with 179 Worsley and Liverpool, was executed under the auspices of the Duke of Bridgewater (17591773), and called after his name. Almost totally uneducated, Brindley owed his success to the sheer force of genius. In thinking out his mechanical designs he sought no aid from books or models; and would even, for the purpose of greater abstraction, retire to bed for two or three days. The saying that "the natural use of rivers was to feed navigable canals," is characteristically attributed to Brindley. [Bibliotheca Britannica.-Lives of the Engineers, by Smiles.] F. Y. E. BRISCOE, JOHN (17th century), ranks second to H. Chamberlin among the projectors of land banks who flourished in the latter part of the 17th century. Briscoe's project is set forth in his Discourse on the Late Funds pen. He (1694, third ed. 1696). An Abstract of this discourse, and also a Dialogue (between Freeholder and Philanglus) explanatory" thereof followed soon (1694) from Briscoe's He continued in a series of broadsheets to repeat with variations his proposals for setting up a land bank. A proposal which he made for regulation of the coin (1695) is not unconnected with his darling project. accuses J. ASGILL (q.v.) of having appropriated his ideas, see Mr. John Asgill, his Plagiarism detected, 1696. Briscoe himself is accused of plagiarising from Chamberlin, by the author of A Rod for the Fool's Back, or Dr. Chamberlin and his Proposals Vindicated, 1694, attributed to Chamberlin. However, Briscoe appears as the "literary advocate of Chamberlin's land bank" (Thorold Rogers) in a letter to the doctor dated 1693, published in 1696 by Chamberlin. In some remarks prefixed to this letter Chamberlin speaks of the "great reputation Mr. Briscoe hath among some of our senators. Chamberlin adds (at the end of the letter), "As a stronger confirmation of the good opinion Mr. B. had of the doctor's 100 years proposal, he subscribed £200 per annum.' Briscoe shares with Chamberlin, in proportions which it is not easy to assign, the responsibility of having originated the land bank, which proved such a complete failure in 1696 (see HUGH CHAMBERLEN or CHAMBERLIN). |