Headnote

Probably composed March 1728; published 19 March 1728; copy text 1728a (see Textual Account).

A Short View was published in Dublin during the parliamentary session of November 1727 to May 1728. Swift was one of several writers who responded to what was perceived, by 1728, as a crisis in the Irish economy caused by bad harvests, the consequent increase in numbers of the poor, and a rapid decline in basic industries such as woollen and cloth manufacture, resulting in a deterioration in Ireland's balance of trade. Swift felt that the various suggestions and proposals of a constructive nature that were being made by contemporary economic writers did not deal with the root causes of the crisis, which were in his view political. A Short View is usually thought to be a specific response to the two contemporaneous Dublin pamphlets of John Browne, Seasonable Remarks on Trade and An Essay Upon Trade (published in the same week as Swift's work), and by implication others like Browne, who argued for the potential improvement of Ireland predicated upon her natural resources. Swift sets out basic obstacles to Irish economic reform which he would reiterate in the following years: the absence of free trade deriving from the constitutional subordination of the Irish Parliament to Westminster; the monopoly of Irish offices by the English; the absenteeism of Irish landowners; and the importation of foreign luxuries at the expense of native industries.

A Short View was reprinted in 1728 as number 15 of The Intelligencer, with an introduction by Sheridan, and was thereafter included (in its original form) in all collected editions of Swift's prose writings.

A SHORT VIEW, &c.

I am assured that it hath for some time been practised as a method of makingMen's Court, when they are asked about theRate ofLands, the Abilities of Tenants, the State of Trade and Manufacture in this Kingdom, and how their Rents are payed; to Answer, That in their Neighbourhood all things are in a flourishing Condition, the Rent and Purchase of Land every Day encreasing. And if a Gentleman happens to be a little more sincere in his Representations, besides being looked on as not well affected, he is sure to have a Dozen Contradictors at his Elbow. I think it is no manner of Secret why these Questions are so cordially asked, or so obligingly Answered.