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AN ESSAY UPON PROJECTS

DANIEL DEFOE

Contents:

Introduction
Author's Preface
Author's Introduction
The History of Projects
Of Projectors
Of Banks
Of the Multiplicity of Banks
Of the Highways
Of Assurances
Of Friendly Societies
Of Seamen
Of Wagering
Of Fools
A Charity-Lottery
Of Bankrupts
Of Academies
Of a Court Merchant
Of Seamen
The Conclusion

INTRODUCTION.

Defoe's "Essay on Projects" was the first volume he published and
no great writer ever published a first book more characteristic in
expression of his tone of thought. It is practical in the highest
degree while running over with fresh speculation that seeks
everywhere the well-being of society by growth of material and moral
power. There is a wonderful fertility of mind and almost whimsical
precision of detail with good sense and good humour to form the
groundwork of a happy English style. Defoe in this book ran again
and again into sound suggestions that first came to be realised long
after he was dead. Upon one subject indeed the education of
women we have only just now caught him up. Defoe wrote the book in
1692 or 1693 when his age was a year or two over thirty and he
published it in 1697.

Defoe was the son of James Foe of St. Giles's Cripplegate whose
family had owned grazing land in the country and who himself throve
as a meat salesman in London. James Foe went to Cripplegate Church
where the minister was Dr. Annesley. But in 1662 a year after the
birth of Daniel Foe Dr. Annesley was one of the three thousand
clergymen who were driven out of their benefices by the Act of
Uniformity. James Foe was then one of the congregation that
followed him into exile and looked up to him as spiritual guide
when he was able to open a meeting-house in Little St. Helen's.
Thus Daniel Foe not yet De Foe was trained under the influence of
Dr. Annesley and by his advice sent to the Academy at Newington
Green where Charles Morton a good Oxford scholar trained young
men for the pulpits of the Nonconformists. In later days when
driven to America by the persecution of opinion Morton became Vice-
President of Harvard College. Charles Morton sought to include in
his teaching at Newington Green a training in such knowledge of
current history as would show his boys the origin and meaning of the
controversies of the day in which as men they might hereafter take
their part. He took pains also to train them in the use of
English. "We were not" Defoe said afterwards "destitute of
language but we were made masters of English; and more of us
excelled in that particular than of any school at that time."

Daniel Foe did not pass on into the ministry for which he had been
trained. He said afterwards in his "Review" "It was my disaster
first to be set apart for and then to be set apart from the honour
of that sacred employ." At the age of about nineteen he went into
business as a hose factor in Freeman's Court Cornhill. He may have
bought succession to a business or sought to make one in a way of
life that required no capital. He acted simply as broker between
the manufacturer and the retailer. He remained at the business in
Freeman's Court for seven years subject to political distractions.
In 1683 still in the reign of Charles the Second Daniel Foe aged
twenty-two published a pamphlet called "Presbytery Roughdrawn."
Charles died on the 6th of February 1685. On the 14th of the next
June the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme with eighty-three
followers hoping that Englishmen enough would flock about his
standard to overthrow the Government of James the Second for whose
exclusion as a Roman Catholic from the succession to the throne
there had been so long a struggle in his brother's reign. Daniel
Foe took leave of absence from his business in Freeman's Court
joined Monmouth and shared the defeat at Sedgmoor on the 6th of
July. Judge Jeffreys then made progress through the West and
Daniel Foe escaped from his clutches. On the 15th of July Monmouth
was executed. Daniel Foe found it convenient at that time to pay
personal attention to some business affairs in Spain. His name
suggests an English reading of a Spanish name Foa and more than
once in his life there are indications of friends in Spain about
whom we know nothing. Daniel Foe went to Spain in the time of
danger to his life for taking part in the rebellion of the Duke of
Monmouth and when he came back he wrote himself De Foe. He may
have heard pedigree discussed among his Spanish friends; he may have
wished to avoid drawing attention to a name entered under the letter
F in a list of rebels. He may have played on the distinction
between himself and his father still living that one was Mr. Foe
the other Mr. D. Foe. He may have meant to write much and wishing
to be a friend to his country meant also to deprive punsters of the
opportunity of calling him a Foe. Whatever his chief reason for the
change we may be sure that it was practical.

In April 1687 James the Second issued a Declaration for Liberty of
Conscience in England by which he suspended penal laws against all
Roman Catholics and Nonconformists and dispensed with oaths and
tests established by the law. This was a stretch of the king's
prerogative that produced results immediately welcome to the
Nonconformists who sent up addresses of thanks. Defoe saw clearly
that a king who is thanked for overruling an unwelcome law has the
whole point conceded to him of right to overrule the law. In that
sense he wrote "A Letter containing some Reflections on His
Majesty's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience" to warn the
Nonconformists of the great mistake into which some were falling.
"Was ever anything" he asked afterwards "more absurd than this
conduct of King James and his party in wheedling the Dissenters;
giving them liberty of conscience by his own arbitrary dispensing
authority and his expecting they should be content with their
religious liberty at the price of the Constitution?" In the letter
itself he pointed out that "the king's suspending of laws strikes at
the root of this whole Government and subverts it quite. The Lords
and Commons have such a share in it that no law can be either made
repealed or which is all one suspended but by their consent."

...

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