English social theorist (1802-1876) considered to be the first female sociologist, remembered for her writings on politics, religion, and society. Partial handwritten manuscript by Harriet Martineau, unsigned, one page both sides, 8 x 9.75, no date but circa 1830s. A page from Martineau's draft for 'A Summer Evening Dialogue Between an Englishman and a Pole,' an economical essay written as a conversation. In part: "P…In our country you may see our cattle fed with grain; our peasantry shivering, half-clad, while they consume and waste twice as much corn as they need, if they had a supply of other things. You may see large tracts turned into pasturage, and others foresaken, after two or three years' tillage; and all this for want of a market; while in yonder great town, there are multitudes pining for bread, your warehouses being overstocked with cloth, for which you want a market. What folly is here! If cheapness be good, why should you not have cheap corn, and we cheap clothing, to the advantage of every party concerned?
E. Because not only our landlords fear a reduction of their rents, but our farmers demand being obliged to change their occupation. If we were freely supplied with corn from abroad, a large proportion of those fields wd. become sheep walks, you see. We sh'd want more wool to make your coats, & this very scene may present a verdant down, speckled with flocks, instead of stubble fields rich in sheaves, or an expanse of uncut grain." In very good to fine condition, with a rusty circular paperclip impression to the top, and a few ink notations to the text.
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