Abstract
A fully-funded philanthropic economic project in precolonial Georgia was proclaimed as providing a new start in life for England's poor. The project has been praised for altruism and for being socially progressive through equal land assignment and prohibition of slavery. The project failed as an economic venture but was successful in providing the foundation for Georgia eventually becoming a possession of the British crown. I adopt a political-economy perspective to investigate whether the philanthropic project was a façade for political intent.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102429 |
| Journal | European Journal of Political Economy |
| Volume | 84 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 Elsevier B.V.
Funding
Two reviewers of this journal provided helpful observations. I thank for their helpful comments Tim Besley, Debora Di Gioacchino, Roger Congleton, Bryan Cutsinger, François Facchini, Amy Froide, Alan Gallay, Dror Goldberg, Nigar Hashimzade, Carsten Hefeker, Manfred Holler, Alastair Langtry, Larry Neal, Daniel Schiffman, Dennis Snower, Thomas Stratmann, Julie Anne Sweet, Moshe Syrquin, Nic Tideman, and Warren Young. For the opportunity to present preliminary versions, I thank the organizers of the 2022 Adam Smith Munich Seminar, the 2022 European Public Choice Society conference, and the 2022 Ariel University conference on the Political Economy of Public Policy.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Adam Smith Munich Seminar | |
| European Public Choice Society | |
| Ariel University |
Keywords
- Altruism
- Equality
- Inquisition
- Jews
- Philanthropy
- Rent seeking
- Saltzburgers
- Slavery