Many libertarians and classic liberals considered the 19th century in the West to be the most liberal period in history. We can certainly see dirt, prominent slavery, and subsequent Jim Crow, and colonialism (think of the rule of trade from the colonies that Adam Smith criticised in the wealthy nations in 1776). Furthermore, in many countries, the liberal century ended late (in France, for example) or early (in Germany). Even in the UK, corn laws were only abolished in the middle of the century, and British libertarians were plague as they approached the end of the century (see Matt Zulinsky and John Tomasi’s “Individualist.”
However, for Anthony de Jasai, Whoe thought was strongly anchored in the “private fortress” of private property, but the 19th century was clearly a liberal era. In his book on politics (see my econlib review), he writes:
Thank you to the brilliant yet transiting nententenhenthentheent, history takes time and for the brilliant yet passing in Western civilization.
Britain was one of the most promising countries where liberal progress was. In his British history from 1914 to 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1965), HistoryN, journalist and broadcaster AJP Taylor described his country about the beginning of World War I. In any case, the opening paragraph of Taylor’s book is memorable and worth quoting almost extensively. It suggests that the promise of liberalism was seriously betrayed:
Until August 1914, delicate and law-abiding English was able to pass through life, barely aware of the existence of the Post Office and policeman Beayondo State. I was able to live where I wanted and how I wanted. I don’t have an office. I was able to travel abroad or leave his country forever without a passport or official permission of any kind. I was able to exchange his money with other currencies without restrictions or restrictions. He buys products from every country in the world at the same tur that he bought them from his home. Furthermore, foreigners were able to spend their lives with the police without permission and without information. Unlike countries on the continental European countries, the states did not require citizens to carry out military service. …It’s clear that he helped the nation that wanted to do so. The British paid taxes on a modest scale… well under 8%. National Inome.
The rest of the paragraph shows an emergency of interventionist trends, indicating that the British were generally freer than almost everyone in the West, and now more free than anyone. Interventionist trends were less clear in primary school public education and in support of final resorts.
The state has intervened to prevent citizens from eating immobilized food and contracting certain infectious diseases. It prevented the safety rules in factories, as well as adult evils in the subject industry, and prevented them from spending too much time. The state saw that their children were educated up to the age of 13. Since January 1, 1909, pensions for the poor over the age of 70 have provided small pensions. Since 1911 it has helped to oppose certain classes of workers against illness and unemployment. This trend towards more state action was on the rise. Since the liberals took office in 1905, spending on social services has almost doubled. Still, broadly speaking, the nation acted solely to help those who could not help Zerubus. It let out an adult citizen.
Taylor is a controversial figure. I soon went to a member of the British Communist Party in his youth and remained a lifelong socialist. But is it positive that the above quote primarily reflects what we still observe? I mean that socialists do not understand that individual freedom cannot be imposed without economic freedom.
But that’s worse than that, according to David Price Jones, who writes in the new standards. Taylor was a fellow traveler of the Soviet regime and a Nazi sympathizer. He semed that he had passed through an entire palette of collectivist ideology. Therefore, his account of British freedom before World War I could be certain.
In any case, we can read his explanation as close to what should oppose any form of authoritarianism on the right or left.
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As seen by chatgpt, a London Underground station in the late 19th century
