Morality and the Market in Victorian Britain

How could Victorian capitalist values be harmonized with Christian beliefs and concepts of public morality and social duty? This book explores ideas about citizenship and public virtue and how public morality was reconciled with the market. In this lively and interesting study, G. R. Searle tackles the conundrum at the heart of Victorian life: how could capitalist values be harmonized with Christian beliefs and with concepts of public morality and social duty? Middle-class Victorians who broadly welcomed industrial growth and embraced the doctrines of `political economy' were sensitive to the charge that theirs was a selfish and materialistic creed. Consequently, if public morality was to be reconciled with the market, wage-labour had to be distinguished from slavery, investment from speculation, and entrepreneurial acumen from dishonesty and fraud. These ideas about citizenship and public virtue offered a greater challenge to rampant capitalism than any pressing need to alleviate poverty. Through its exploration of `Victorian values', this book provides lessons for all those engaged in the present-day debate about the moral and social consequences of unleashing free market forces.