Max Hirsch (21 September 1852^[1] – 4 March 1909), was an Australian economist, and a leader of Georgism.

[edit] Early life

Hirsch was born in Cologne, Prussia (now part of Germany). (The biography prefixed to his memorial volume The Problem of Wealth, states however that he was born in September 1853.) Hirsch's father was a writer on economic subjects, and a member of the Reichstag who ran into trouble with the German authorities due to his democratic principles. Young Hirsch was educated at a high school and also did some work at the University of Berlin, but aged 19 began a career as a commercial traveller. Before he was 20 he was sent to Persia to buy carpets and obtained many fine old specimens. These were brought to London via Russia. Hirsch spent some time in Italy studying art, and taking up his travelling again became a representative of British linen manufacturers. Hirsch visited Australia in 1879, and in the following year returned to Germany. Hirsch next went to Ceylon and engaged in coffee planting and was also for a time a member of the civil service. While in Ceylon he found that the rice tax was driving native cultivators off the land. His sympathies were aroused and he wrote several pamphlets on the question, which led to the removal of the tax.

[edit] Career in Australia

In 1890 Hirsch settled in Melbourne, capital of the colony of Victoria (Australia); in 1892 he gave up business and devoted himself to the fight for free trade and land value taxation. The Fiscal Superstition was published 1895, and in the following year Economic Principles, A Manual of Political Economy. In 1901 he published Social Conditions. Materials for Comparisons between New South Wales and Victoria, Great Britain, United States and Foreign Countries. His most important work Democracy versus Socialism was published in London also in 1901.

Hirsch made several attempts to enter political life without success, but in 1902 was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Mandurang (near Bendigo, Victoria). Hirsch resigned this seat in November 1903 to contest the Wimmera constituency in the Federal house of representatives as the fiscal question was now purely a federal matter. However, Hirsch was defeated by 160 votes by the incumbent Protectionist Party member, Pharez Phillips. Hirsch had become the recognized leader of the single tax movement, and his ability in both handling this question in public debates and in his writings brought him many supporters. In his fight for free trade, then a live question in Australia, Hirsch met with much hostility from vested interests, and his opponents did not forget to remind the public that he was German and a Jew. It was even suggested that he was opposed to reasonable wages being paid to the workers. This was quite contrary to the facts, as Hirsch was essentially democratic in his views, and held strongly that the higher the wages paid the better for trade. In 1906 he again failed to win the election for Wimmera. In October 1908 Hirsch left Melbourne on a business mission to Siberia. His health had not been good and it was hoped that the sea voyage would benefit him. Hirsch died at Vladivostok after a short illness on 4 March 1909. He never married. In 1910 his admirers published his Land Values Taxation in Practice, and in 1911 his The Problem of Wealth and Other Essays was published as a memorial volume.

[edit] Legacy

Friends of Hirsch considered that had he would have become a rich man if he had devoted himself entirely to business. He was, however, devoted to his ideals, and preferred to work for causes which could bring him little personal reward but which would be for the good of the people. He was a clear and vigorous writer and speaker, keenly logical, careful of his facts, and always prepared to meet the difficulties of his case. He was no revolutionist, and stated on one occasion that if he were appointed dictator he would bring in the single tax system gradually, so that people who had acquired property under the present system should not be unfairly treated. His most important book Democracy versus Socialism went into a second edition in England in 1924. The vitality of this work is shown by the fact that when the third American edition appeared in 1940 a well-known writer stated in The Atlantic Monthly:

“

"Of the innumerable books on economics . . . published in the last seven years the one which is most important at just this moment . . . is a reprint of Democracy versus Socialism by Max Hirsch . . . it presents the complete case against every known form and shade of state collectivism, from Marxism . . . to the New Deal."

”

[edit] References

• Serle, Percival (1949). "Hirsch, Max". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. http://gutenberg.net.au/dictbiog/0-dict-biogHi-Hu.html#hirsch1. Retrieved 2009-07-29. 

[edit] Notes

1. ^  Argus, Melbourne, 5 March 1909.

[edit] External links

• What Determines the Value of Land by Max Hirsch, at The School of Cooperative Individualism
• Democracy versus Socialism by Max Hirsch, at the Open Library
• Newspaper Report on a Lecture By Max Hirsch