Drapier's Letters is the collective name for a series of seven political pamphlets written between 1724 and 1725 by the Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Jonathan Swift, to arouse public opinion in Ireland against the imposition of a privately minted copper coinage that Swift believed to be of inferior quality. William Wood was granted letters patent to mint the coin, and Swift saw the licensing of the patent as corrupt. In response, Swift represented Ireland as constitutionally and financially independent of Britain in the Drapier's Letters. Since the subject was politically sensitive, Swift wrote under the pseudonym M. B., Drapier,A drapier or draper is a merchant of cloth. to hide from retaliation.Letter 1 Intro Note
Although the letters were condemned by the Parliament of Ireland, with prompting from the Parliament of Great Britain,Coxe 396–399 they were still able to inspire popular sentiment against Wood and his patent. The popular sentiment turned into a nationwide boycott, which forced the patent to be withdrawn; Swift was later honoured for this service to the people of Ireland.The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Volume IX, VI. 19. "Pamphlets on Irish affairs: Drapier's Letters." Many Irish people viewed Swift as a hero for his defiance of British authority.Smith p. 271 Beyond being a hero, many critics have seen Swift, through the persona of the Drapier, as the first to organise a "more universal Irish community", although it is disputed as to who constitutes that community.Moore p. 84 Regardless of to whom Swift is actually appealing what he may or may not have done, the nickname provided by Archbishop King, "Our Irish Copper-Farthen Dean", and his connection to ending the controversy stuck.Moore p. 87
The first complete collection of the Drapier's Letters appeared in the 1734 George Faulkner edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift along with an allegorical frontispiece offering praise and thanks from the Irish people.Weedon p. 44–48 Today, the Drapier's Letters are an important part of Swift's political writings, along with Gulliver's Travels (1726), A Tale of a Tub (1704), and A Modest Proposal (1729).
Background In 1722, hardware manufacturer William Wood was granted letters patent to produce copper coinage of up to £108,000 (around £ as of ) for use in Ireland.Goodwin p. 649 The patent was secured by a bribe of £10,000 (around £ as of ) to the Duchess of Kendal,Hachey p.34 mistress to King George I. Although Wood's copper coins were subsequently alleged to be underweight, undersized, and made from inferior materials,Drapier's Letters p. 142 assays had found they were not so, prior to their approval by the Parliament of Great Britain for use in Ireland.Martin, pp. 1–14
The Irish complaint against Wood was not that they had enough copper coins, but that this would introduce too many coins of inferior quality into the Irish economy. These coins would remove valuable silver and gold coins from circulation in the Irish economy, and since the new copper coins would not be minted under Irish authority, no way existed for the Irish to control the quality and amount.Moore p. 66 Also, Wood's coin was only one example of allegedly unfavourable economic practices that hurt Ireland; the Irish wanted to have their own national bank and authority to mint their own coinage, and Wood's coin became an issue over which they could express their economic-nationalist desires.Moore p. 73
The patent issue soon became a struggle between Prime Minister Robert Walpole (with the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain) and the leaders of Ireland. All attempts by the Irish Privy Council and the Church of Ireland to prevent the release of the coinage proved fruitless.Goodwin p. 661 It was soon thought by many that William Conolly’s Commissioners of the Revenue might pay the soldiers stationed in Ireland with the new coin; if the soldiers were paid with the coin, then the merchants of Ireland would be forced to accept the coin from the soldiers or risk military reprisal or a loss of business. This worried the leadership of Ireland and they requested help in challenging Wood's patent and leading a boycott of the coin. Swift was asked by Archbishop King and Lord Chancellor Midleton to contribute to a pamphleteering campaign against Wood's coin.Ferguson p. 96
During this time, Lord Carteret, the British Secretary of State whose remit included Ireland, publicly pushed Walpole into defending Wood's patent. However, Carteret privately attempted to destroy the patent to damage Walpole's reputation. Thus, Carteret appeared to the British as a defender of the patent because he seemingly tried to prevent an Irish uprising (especially by finding "Drapier"), but he was really furthering his anti-Walpole agenda and aiding the Irish nationalist cause.Ehrenpreis p.198
Pamphleteering Jonathan Swift, then Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, was already known for his concern for the Irish people and for writing several political pamphlets. One of these, Proposal for the Universal use of Irish Manufacture (1720), had so inflamed the British authorities that the printer, John Harding, was prosecuted, although the pamphlet had done little more than recommend that the Irish use the materials they produce rather than export them to England.Smith p. 266–267 Also, the Irish authorities knew that Swift's political pamphleteering had been employed by the Tory government of Queen Anne, and that he would use his abilities to undermine the Whig government of Walpole.
Swift analysed the forensic and economic disadvantages of Wood's inferior coinage and the effects it would have over Ireland in the first of the pamphlets, A Letter to the Shop-keepers (1724). In the pamphlet, Swift adopted the persona of the "Drapier": a common Irishman, a talented and skilled draper, a religiously devout individual who believes in scripture, and a man loyal to both the Church of Ireland and to the King of Ireland.Beaumont p. 44 Swift's pseudonymous choice served two essential purposes: it provided him with an alternate persona which he could use to hide from potential political reprisals, and it allowed him to create an identity that was closely aligned with the common people of Ireland.
According to 20th-century Swift scholar Irvin Ehrenpreis, debate arose in the academic community over how much Swift may have wished his audience to identify him as the Drapier, especially since the Drapier constantly includes religious imagery that was common to Swift's sermons. However, the religious rhetoric probably used to justify an Irish rebellion against the coinage is merely meant as an important aspect of the Drapier's identity without it being meant as evidence that Swift was the author.Ehrenpreis p. 208 Regardless of how secret Swift may have wanted his identity to be, most people in Ireland, including members of the Irish Privy Council, certainly knew that Swift was the author of the letters. Unfortunately for the Walpole administration, little legal proof was available of a relationship between the two that would justify them trying Swift as the "Drapier".
Over the course of a year, four more pamphlets, filled with invective and complaints against both Wood and his patent, followed the first. The pamphlet was successful, and public opinion became so hostile against Wood's coinage that the patent was withdrawn by 1725. At one point, Lord Carteret and the Irish Privy Council offered a significant reward of £300 for information that would verify the identity of the pamphlet's author, but Swift was neither arrested nor charged for the works. The lack of an arrest and the unity of the Irish people behind the "Drapier" was an important motivating factor behind Walpole's withdrawal of the patent.
Irish independence Although Swift knew that the Duchess of Kendal was responsible for selling the patent to Wood, he rarely mentions this fact in the Letters. Instead, his first three letters describe Wood as the mastermind behind the patent. Although the Drapier constantly asserts his loyalty to the King, his words did not prevent accusations of treason from being levelled against him in response to the third and fourth letters.
In the third and fourth letters, Swift argues that the Irish deserve to be granted independence from British control but not King George II. This, of all of the Drapier's arguments, is what agitated Walpole, as the head of the British parliament, the most. Thus, the Drapier was condemned like William Molyneux, whose Case of Ireland (1698) pleaded for Irish independence using the same arguments.Ferguson p. 110 The claims of treason levelled against the Drapier were of "treason to the English Parliament", which only caused more resentment among the Irish people, who sided with Swift's constitutional argument that the Irish people owed their allegiance only to the king.
Pamphlets The first three pamphlets were written as a set intended to conclude the matter. However, when Lord Carteret was sent to control Ireland and placed a bounty on the Drapier's head, Swift felt that a fourth pamphlet was necessary. The fifth (in this list) was written at the height of the controversy over Wood's coin, and constitutes the final public writing of "the Drapier".Prose Works Letter 6 Intro Note The letter To the Lord Chancellor Middleton was signed with Swift's nameProse Works Letter 5 and not collected until Faulkner's 1735 edition. The last letter, An Humble Address, was also published after the conflict had ended.Prose Works Letter 7 Intro Note
To the Shop-keepers
The Drapier's first letter, To the Shop-keepers, Tradesmen, Farmers, and Common-People of Ireland, was printed in March 1724. Shortly afterwards, a copy of the first letter was forwarded by Swift to Lord Carteret on 28 April 1724, and knowledge of the letter's contents had spread all the way to London. By April 1724, the letter was popular and Swift claimed that over 2,000 copies had been sold in Dublin.Letters p. 106 The letter was retitled "Fraud Detected: or, The Hibernian Patriot" by Faulkner's Dublin Journal, which published the piece in 1725.Prose Works Letter 1 "Fraud Detected" was later used by Faulkner as the title of the collection of the first five letters, published after the patent controversy ended.Ehrenpreis p. 317-318
The Drapier introduces his subject by invoking the duty of his readers as "Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country". His purpose is to introduce the background of Wood's coin and then he suggests a boycott similar to the one in his Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture. Throughout his monetary arguments, the Drapier constantly acknowledges how humble his station in life is, and incorporates theological and classical allusions to mock Wood. The Drapier places the blame for the coin upon Wood, stating: "It is no treason to rebel against Mr Wood."
There are many religious overtones similar to Swift's sermons, such as the Drapier's combination of a duty to God with duty to one's king and country. Many critics compare the language and rhetorical style of the first letter to a Hebrew prophet or to an evangelical preacher who warns the masses of an imminent threat to their soul.Ehrenpreis p. 210 However, the final judgment had not yet come, so the Drapier also included arguments claiming that Wood's halfpence would destroy the Irish economy and the souls of the citizenry.Ferguson p. 99
One of the concerns of the Irish discussed in the first letter was over what is now known as Gresham's law:Moore p. 81 debased coins would cause silver and gold coinage to be hoarded or removed from the country, which would further debase the currency. Tenant farmers would no longer be able to pay their landlords, and, after the tenants were removed, there would be fewer crops grown in Ireland; the increase of poverty and the decrease of food supply would completely ruin Ireland's economy.