Profile Major Works Resources

Daniel Defoe, 1660-1731

English writer Daniel Defoe is perhaps best known for his novels, Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders, but he was also the quintessential "brilliant scoundrel" of the Augustan Age. In rough chronological order, Daniel Defoe was a hosier, soldier, wine merchant, factory owner, bankrupt, spy, pamphleteer, convict, journalist, editor, political flunkey, hack writer and novelist. 

In 1704, he launched the Review of the Affairs of France and of all Europe, one of the first serious political and economic newspapers in England (it folded in the aftermath of the 1712 Stamp Act).  He served as editor on several other newspapers later.  As a trader and non-conformist, Defoe's produced several political and social commentaries hailing the dawn of the bourgeois-capitalist age.

In the service of Robert Harley, a shadowy figure of Queen Anne's reign, Defoe's produced a detailed three-volume (1724-7) account of the economic, political and social conditions of the cities and country-sides of Great Britain.  His talent was dissipated in later years when, as a political journalist, he compromised his independence as a reporter in return for political favors.

Besides his descriptive tour, Defoe piped on several other economic issues.  Defoe authored a famous 1704 tract opposing a government scheme to erect workhouses for the unemployed poor, on the grounds that the output of the workhouses would reduced demand for the output of the currently employed, and thus simply shift unemployment around from one part of the country to another.  Defoe also authored a notable Mercantilist tract in 1728.

 

  


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Major Works of Daniel Defoe

  • [Anon] A Letter to a Dissenter from his Friend at the Hague, concerning the Penal Laws and the Test; shewing that the popular plea for liberty of conscience is not concerned in that question, 1688
  • [Anon. Possibly DeFoe] Taxes No Charge: In a Letter from a Gentleman, to a Person of Quality, 1690
  • [Anon] An Account of the Late Horrid Conspiracy to Depose Their Present Majesties K. William and Q. Mary, to Bring in the French and the Late King James, and Ruine the City of London, 1691 [bk]
  • [Anon] The Englishman's Choice, and True Interest, in a Vigorous prosecution of the war against France, and Serving K. William and Q. Mary, and acknowledging their right, 1694 [bk]
  • [Anon] An Essay on Projects, 1697 [bk]
  • [Anon] Argument shewing, that a standing Army, with Consent of Parliament, is not inconsistent with a free Government, 1698
  • [Anon] The True Born Englishman: A Satyr, 1700. [bk] [1771 ed]
  • [Anon] The Freeholders Plea against Stock-jobbing Elections of Parliament-men, 1701 [1701 ed]
  • [Anon] The Succession to the Crown of England Considered, 1701 [bk]
  • [Anon?] The Present Disposition of England considered [1701 2nd ed]
  • [Anon] The Danger of the Protestant Religion Consider'd: From the Present Prospect of a Religious War in Europe, 1701  [bk]
  • [Anon] The Mock Mourners. A Satyr, by Way of Elegy on King William, 1702 [7th ed]
  • [Anon] Reformation of Manners: A Satyr, 1702 [bk]
  • [Anon] The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England, examined and asserted, 1702 [bk]
  • [Anon] The Shortest-Way with the Dissenters, or proposals for the establishment of the Church 1702. [bk], [bart]
  • [Anon] A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty: or, Whiggish loyalty and Church loyalty compar'd, 1702 [1703 ed, 1751 ed, av]
  • [Anon] Hymn to the Pillory, 1703 [bk]
  • [Anon] A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of The True Born English-man, corrected by Himself, 1703 [bk]
  • [Anon] Reflections upon a passage in a Pamphlet entitled 'Peace without Union', 1704 [bk]
  • [Anon] Giving Alms No Charity, and employing the poor a grievance to the nation, being an essay upon this great question, whether work-houses, corporations, and houses of correction for employing the poor, as now practis'd in England; or parish-stocks, as propos'd in a late pamphlet, entituled, 'A Bill for the better relief, imployment and settlement of the poor, &c.' are not mischievous to the nation, tending to the destruction of our trade, and to encrease the number and misery of the poor, 1704 [av] [reprinted in McCulloch's Scarce Economical Tracts, 1859 p.27] [McM]
  • [Anon] Royal Religion; being some enquiry after the piety of princes. With remarks on a book, entituled, 'A Form of Prayers us'd by King William', 1704 [bk]
  • [Anon] The Dyet of Poland: A Satyr, 1705 [bk]
  • [Anon] A New Test of the Church of England's Honesty, 1705 [bk]
  • [Anon] The High-Church Legeon: or, the Memorial examin'd, being a new test of moderation, as 'tis recommended to all that love the Chuch of England and the Constitution, 1705 [bk]
  • [Anon] The Ballance: Or, a New Test of the high-fliers of all Sides: being a short view of the rise of our present factions, with a new history of passive-obedience, and a proposal of a bill against Occasional Conformity that may pass both houses, 1705 [bk]
  • A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs Veal, 1705 [rut]
  • The Consolidator, 1705
  • [Peud: "Andre Moreton"] Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business [bk]
  • The Family Instructor, 1715
  • Dickory Cronke, the Dumb Philosopher, 1719
  • On the Education of Women, 1719 [bart]
  • The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719 [1719 3rd ed]
  • The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719 [1722 4th ed]
  • The Life of Captain Singleton, 1720.
  • Memoirs of a Cavalier, 1720 
  • The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, 1722.
  • Colonel Jack, 1722.
  • Tour Through Eastern Counties of England, 1722
  • From London to Land's End
  • Journal of the Plague Year, 1722.
  • Roxana, 1724
  • The Great Law of Subordination Considered, 1724.
  • A General History of the Robberies and Murder of the Most Notorious Pyrates (attrib.), 1724-8
  • A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724-7.
  • The Complete English Tradesman, 1725-7
  • The Political History of the Devil, 1726
  • An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions, 1727
  • London the Most Flourishing City in the Universe, 1728
  • A Plan of the English Commerce, being a compleat prospect of the trade of this nation, as Well the home trade as the foreign. In three parts. Part I. Containing a view of the present magnitude of the English trade as it respects 1. the exportation of our own growth and manufacture, 2. the importation of merchants goods from abroad, 3. the prodigious consumption of both at home. Part II. Containing an answer to that great and important question now depending, whether our trade, and especially Our manufactures, are in a declining condition, or no? Part III. Containing several proposals entirely new, for extending and improving Our trade and promoting the consumption of our manufactures, in countries wherewith we have hitherto had no commerce, 1728  [bk] [Extracts repr.  in McCulloch, 1859, Scarce Tracts on Commerce, p.105]
  • The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, 1729
  • The Works of Daniel De Foe (W. Hazlitt editor), 1841, v.1, v.2, v.3

HET

 

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Resources on Daniel Defoe

 

 
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