Twelve Autograph Letters Signed and one Typed Letter Signed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, [Secretary,] Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir William James Ashley
Publication details: 
5 August 1913 to 9 September 1916; mainly on '3, YATELEY ROAD, | EDGBASTON' and University of Birmingham letterheads.
£400.00
SKU: 3803

British economic historian (1860-1927), a disciple of Arnold Toynbee, and proponent of the historical method pioneered in Germany by such scholars as Roscher, Hildebrand and Knies. The manuscript items are all 12mo, the typed item quarto. All twelve docketed and bearing the Society's stamp, and signed 'W. T. Ashley'. The collection is in very good condition, though grubby in parts and with one or two creased corners. An interesting and characteristic correspondence. ITEM ONE (3 pages, 12mo, 5 August 1913): Declines proposal to act as examiner. 'May I add - tho' it will not concern me personally - that a fee of one guinea for looking over 25 papers is very absurd in a case such as this? In some subjects, like elementary Mathematics, two or three minutes are enough for each paper. But Commerce, if it is to mean anything worth while, involves argument and exposition, & the marking requires judgment. In Univ-exams I find I can't read more than 3 [^ or 4] papers in an hour. Suppose these could be read twice as quick - 8 in an hour. That means more than 3 hours' work for a guinea. You can't expect anyone of any sort of position to do the work for the money. | You will pardon my frankness I hope.' ITEM 2 (2 pages, quarto, typed): he is flattered by the invitation 'but I do not quite know what to reply'. 'That particular lecture is on the point of being printed in the series known as 'Oxford Pamphlets' which are having a pretty wide circulation in some quarters. Moreover, the whole or part will probably appear in an Italian Quarterly, Scientia as part of an international symposium; so that it will soon be "cauld kail". Moreover, I have been asked to write an article on the English economic position for an importan Swedish journal, where it will follow upon a similar article by Von Schmoller; and this seems so much of a duty that I must do the best I can.' Letter of 7 January 1915 begins 'It would be an honour to be presided over by Mr. Cox - tho' I differ from him on almost every subject! - but perhaps we are too much of the same kind.' Suggests six names, including Bonar Law, Austen Chamberlain and Charles Booth. ('[I]t would be pleasant to me if you approached Mr. Bonar Law first, - you will be good enough not to imply that theh suggestion came from me.') Several items relate to an address given by Ashley at the Society, entitled 'The Economic Position of Germany'. On 12 February 1915 he writes 'Since you originally proposed the title on the card, much has happened; & after Mr. Asquith's speech of last night I do not propose to deal with the English side of the subject - at least not at any length.' On 2 April 1915: 'You will be interested to hear that at the request of the Editor of the Atlantic Monthly, an abbreviated form of the address will shortly apear in that magazine.' Letter of 3 July 1915 expresses thanks at the award of 'one of the Society's silver medals'. Explains on 11 November 1915 that he cannot be present to receive the medal, 'owing to a Meeting of the University Senate on Wednesday afternoon next - a Meeting from which, as Dean of a Faculty, I cannot be absent [...] those interested in the subject of the paper I read to the Society will find the food aspect of the subject treated at greater length and with reference to later developments in the current issue of the Quarterly Review'. Declines further invitation on 9 September 1916: 'But I will venture to fall back upon you when I feel I have something to say, & want a reverberating platform!'