Profile Major Works Resources

Francis Place, 1771-1854.

Tailor, radical politician, social agitator and utilitarian philosopher. 

In the 1790s, Francis Place was the head of the London Corresponding Society for parliamentary reform. His tailor's shop on Charing Cross Road became a center for radical agitation. Place played a critical role in the repeal of the Combination Acts in 1824, thereby legalizing trade unionism.  In the 1830s, became a leading Chartist and, in the 1840s, actively campaigned for the repeal of the Corn Laws and, in the 1850s, for the repeal of the Stamp Act.   

Place's only book (1822) criticized Malthus, not so much for his analysis of the population problem, but rather for his failure to consider institutional solutions that might help solve it.  In addition to Place's numerous schemes to alleviate poverty, the one that stood out most controversially was his promotion of artificial contraception (although he had 15 children himself!).  It was for distributing Place's pamphlets on birth control that the young John Stuart Mill got arrested.  

 

  

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Major Works of Francis Place

  • Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population, including an estimation of the proposed remedies of Mr. Malthus, and a reply to the objections of Mr. Godwin and others, 1822. [bk]

 
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Resources on Francis Place

  • "Place on Population", 1822, New Monthly Magazine,  p.541
  • "Review of Place's Illustrations", 1822, Literary Gazette, p.117
  • "Place, Francis" in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1864 ed.]
  • "Place, Francis" in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1899, Dictionary of Political Economy [1918 ed.]
  • "Place, Francis" in Leslie Stephen & Stephen Lee, editor, 1885-1901 Dictionary of National Biography [1908-09 ed]
  • The Life of Francis Place, by Graham Wallas, 1898 [bk], [av]
  • Francis Place at Spartacus 
  • Place at PeelWeb, 
  • Place entry at Britannica
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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