Joe Johnston's published academic work tended to take second place to his polemical and outreach writings. He did however make a significant contribution to economic history, and the the analysis of the origins of modern economic concepts. In the latter context he increasingly concentrated on the economic writings of Bishop Berkeley.

I have so far not found any publications in the 1910s decade (1) which count as 'academic' in the strict sense; his main output was initially via initially the Albert Kahn(2) Travelling Fellowship reporting procedure, and then later journalistic-ally in national politics(3), into which mode the Albert Kahn work evolved naturally, via his 1916 work in France on the wartime agricultural production system(4).

In the 1920s JJ's main output was in the Barrington(5) direction, promoting co-operation among agricultural producers; there was some quasi-academic spin-off from this process, in the form of his book Groundwork of Economics (Educational Co, 1926)(6). He also served on the Prices Commission, and used its Report as an outlet for some of the results (ie the French sector) of his researches into distribution costs, done with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. The Irish sector of this work appeared as his first paper to the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society in 1926(7).

In the 1930s JJ's academic output reached a peak, and much of it was concerned with his work on Berkeley, whose economic writings JJ increasingly regarded as seminal, a precursor of most if not all modern economic thinking. Most of this work was published in the TCD publication Hermathena. This somewhat restricted its international accessibility. He did however circulate reprints of Hermathena papers (of which small stocks remained among his possessions), and he began to publish in the mainstream economic publications in Britain, especially the Economic Journal, then edited by JM Keynes.

In a series of papers dealing with commerce, money and credit(8) in the ancient world, and in 18th century Ireland, JJ stressed the identity of money and credit as seen by Berkeley, relating this to Berkeley's promotion of the need for a national publicly-owned banking system. Private ownership of the banking system, as is has evolved, regarded the distinction between money and credit as being of great importance. For a modern financier, a debt is liquidated when money is repaid. For Berkeley, monetary obligations are only liquidated when transformed into solid goods and services. The latter was JJ's position, which he distilled into a 1938 paper for Keynes's Economic Journal(9).

My father also wrote extensively in academic mode on topics related to the world depression(10), and to the Economic War, in the latter case orienting his arguments towards distinct Irish(11) and English(12) reader-ships, and indeed audiences, in that much of the published material relates to lectures and seminars. Some of the papers published abroad are in fact Irish oriented, in that ideas published in a prestigious international journal would perhaps carry more weight in influencing policy(13).

After entering the Seanad in 1938 JJ had little time for academic publication, but he did contribute a further Berkeley paper to Hermathena in 1942(14). It had been written in 1937, and he had been diverted from completing it and submitting it by political pressures. It forms part of his continuing Berkeley analysis which he latter pulled together into his 1970 Querist book.

Also in 1942 he was accepted as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy(15). It is probable that he resurrected his 1937 paper and submitted it in order to strengthen his academic standing. The President of the Academy at the time was Eoin MacNeill; I suspect (without having hard evidence) that Eoin MacNeill may have encouraged JJ to apply at this time, during his Presidency, in recognition of his role in support of the Irish cause internationally, via the Albert Kahn Foundation(16). The politics of the foundation of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, on de Valera's initiative, at this time involved the RIA, and was, I understand, somewhat complex. I have heard suggestions that the RIA had been distinctly unhelpful to de Valera in the context, in the late 30s and early 40s, when he required good academic advice. I conjecture that this 1942 Academy recruitment under MacNeill was part of that political process(17). In other words, Dev probably encouraged MacNeill to recruit national-minded academics to the Academy.

In support of his claim to academic distinction JJ listed his 1925 Groundwork of Economics, his 1934 Nemesis of Economic Nationalism, his Hermathena papers on managed currency in the 5th century BC, Irish currency in the 18th century, commercial restriction and monetary deflation in 18th century Ireland, Berkeley and the abortive bank project of 1720-21, the synopsis of Berkeley's monetary philosophy, Locke, Berkeley and Hume as monetary theorists, all of which are listed as his main academic works in the 1930s module.

The above suggests that he was proud of, and stood over, his Nemesis and this therefore gives it a place in the academic stream along with the Groundwork, though to my mind both are basically popularising polemical books rather than academic studies.

He also mentions, without detailed reference, papers in '...JHS, Studies, the Economic Journal and the Journal of the Statistical Society (sic) of Ireland, etc, etc..' thereby indicating that he regarded these as part of the outreach programme rather than hard-core academic research contributions.

In November 1953 there was a special issue of Hermathena to commemorate the Berkeley bicentenary, which had been celebrated at an international conference held in Trinity College in July 1953. There were 70 universities present from all over the world. Eamonn de Valera, then Taoiseach (Prime Minister) opened an exhibition of Berkeleiana in the College Library. The delegates were received by the President Sean T O'Kelly. The keynote lecture(18) was given that evening by JJ on Berkeley's influence as an economist, with Professor GA Duncan in the chair, the vote of thanks being proposed by Senator Professor George O'Brien of UCD.

In the remainder of the 1950s JJ contributed further to the analysis of the performance of the Irish economy under the protectionist regime of de Valera, of which he was highly critical(19). This work however was done primarily in outreach mode, initially via the Seanad, and also via the SSISI and the Irish Association, rather than through the medium of academic papers.

My own published scientific work was concentrated in the 1950s(20), during the Ecole Polytechnique and Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies period. Some significant work was done both on the experimental detection and identification of 'strange' particles, and on the technology of the experimentation process.

Highlights included the discovery of the first sigma-minus hyperon and the measurement of its mass, and confirmation of the existence of an electron decay mode for the K-plus meson. Subsequent work, with Cormac O Ceallaigh, estimated the relative frequency of the various K-meson decay modes. We were able to use our analysis of the two-body modes as a means of increasing considerably the precision of using ionisation measurements for the estimation of particle velocity.

In the 1960s JJ, while in outreach mode being increasingly critical of the European Common Market, and in TCD politics fighting a rearguard action with the Kells Ingram Farm and the integrated large-scale commercial farm model, tended increasingly to concentrate on mining his own earlier ideas, with a view to linking them with a new annotated edition of Berkeley's Querist(21). This was published in 1970, and he submitted it for the degree of D Litt. It had always galled him that he had not done a doctorate during his earlier academic period, and this last fling in the academic world was his attempt to make belated amends.

The book had impact, and may yet have more. I am indebted to Collison Black, late of Queen University Belfast, and who served with my father on the Council of the SSISI in the 1950s, for drawing my attention to some work in the University of Illinois by Salim Rachid.

In a Manchester School paper (Vol LVI no 4, December 1988) Rachid mentions JJ's Berkeley work in support of his thesis regarding the existence of an Irish School of Economic Development 1720-1750. This included Berkeley, Molyneux, Swift, Dobbs and Prior, and was closely linked to applied-scientific development activity via the Dublin Society. Rachid distinguishes this group from the 'Merchantilists' with whom all economic thought prior to Adam Smith has tended to be uncritically identified by historians of economic thought, and shows how they were in fact Smith precursors. JJ went further and regarded Berkeley as being a Keynes precursor.

I suggest that there is perhaps some raw material here for exploitation by scholars interested in the historical roots of development economics. I would go further and suggest that in the composition of this group, with the strong scientific component as expressed in Dobbs and Prior, we have a good model which in current development economic thinking needs to be recaptured. The key to economic development is technical competence in the useful arts, and this was the Dublin Society's prime objective.

At this point it is appropriate to place on record that JJ in the 40s encouraged me to take up science as a career, and I now realise that this must have been as a consequence of the foregoing insights.

There was also some significant scientific work done by the present writer in the 1960s and 1970s, but in applied-scientific domains, where publication procedures are somewhat 'grey'. This work as increasingly in the various domains which were opening up to computer-based analysis, evolving in the 1980s increasingly into the commercial consultancy area. Then in the 1990s thanks to the EU-funded work which we did in knowledge-base development, using case-based reasoning, I did get my name on various team publications, including one done in hypermedia mode published by Springer-verlag(22).

Notes and References

2. For an overview of the Albert Kahn thread see Appendix 3.

3. JJ was quite prolific as a political journalist during the war of independence period; I have over-viewed this aspect in Appendix 10.

4. For the European part of his Albert Kahn Fellowship JJ somehow managed to get to study the French wartime agricultural production system, as part of his Report. He also published it in Ireland, with Maunsel, in the form of a pamphlet supporting co-operative organisation.

5. I have over-viewed the Barrington Lectures thread in Appendix 7, under the generic label 'Intellectual Outreach'.

6. I have attempted to pull together all references having some academic standing in the 1920s academic module, though they mostly border on other themes.

7. This paper was entitled Some Causes and Consequences of Distributive Waste(J SSISI vol XIV p353, 1926-7). JJ was introduced as 'Fellow and Tutor of TCD, Rockefeller Fellow for Economic Research in Europe 1926-27, and Chairman ILO Committee, League of Nations Society of Ireland.'

8. The Hermathena papers were as follows: An International Managed Currency in the Fifth Century BC, XLVII p132, 1932; Irish Currency in the Eighteenth Century, LII p3, 1938; Berkeley and the Abortive Bank Project of 1720-21, LIV p110, 1939; A Synopsis of Berkeley's Monetary Philosophy, LV p73, 1940; also he published Solon's Reform of Weights and Measures in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol LIV, p180, 1934.

9. The Monetary Theories of Berkeley, in Economic History (a supplement to the Economic Journal, edited by JM Keynes and EAG Robinson), February 1938. In this JJ identified in Berkeley forerunners of ideas expressed in Keynes General Theory: "Berkeley anticipated Mr Keynes' view...that an increase in the quantity of money, if used for productive purposes, would increase the volume of employment."

10. The World Crisis: Its Non-Monetary Background, Institute of Bankers, Nov 17 1932. In this paper JJ focused on the disequilibrium between agriculture and industry, and on the various types of friction in the pipeline between the producer and consumer of agricultural goods. JJ used this Bankers platform as a means of launching his classic Free Trade onslaught on economic nationalism, later to be developed in his 1934 book Nemesis of Economic Nationalism.

11. Agriculture and the Sickness of the Free Economy, Studies, XXIV no 94, p295, June 1935. I count this among the academic stream, given that the Jesuit quarterly Studies is refereed and has a scholarly reputation. It is however polemic, and really belongs in the outreach category treated in the Barrington and Statistical and Social Inquiry Society streams. JJ got reprints for distribution. The de Valera 'self-sufficiency' policy was it its height, and agricultural exports were crippled by the 'economic war'. This was followed by An Outlook on Irish Agriculture, Studies XXVIII no 111, September 1939. This continued the arguments of the 1935 paper, in the light of subsequent experience. Aggregate money income in agriculture declined from £52M in 1929 to £29M in 1933 and by 1938 had increased again only to £38M. The increase in industrial production under protection had increased the wealth of the towns but had increased the prices of industrial goods bought by declining agricultural incomes.

12. The Economic Journal, edited by JM Keynes and EAG Robinson, in its September 1934 issue (Vol XLIV no 175 p453) carried a paper by JJ on The Purchasing Power of Irish Free State Farmers in 1933. This was a quantification of the catastrophic collapse of agricultural purchasing power consequent on the 'economic war' arising from de Valera's policy on the land annuities. Then we had The Anglo-Irish Economic Conflict in Nineteenth Century and After, DCCVIII, February 1936. This was a sort of 'think tank' or theoretical journal of the Liberal Party; the paper by JJ which is to hand is a reprint, and from internal evidence it was a public lecture read on an occasion, perhaps at his Alma Mater in Lincoln College Oxford, but this is a guess. Then in December 1937 we had Price Ratios in Recent Irish Agricultural Experience, Economic Journal (ed Keynes & Robinson); Vol XLVII no 188 p680. In this paper JJ developed a classical Adam Smith argument from the Wealth of Nations, regarding the need for a certain ratio between the price of cattle and corn to exist, if continuous improvement of arable and pastoral land is to take place. Then to summarise the Economic War experience we had Irish Agriculture, Then and Now, Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies; October 1940. This paper reviewed critically the 'economic war' period and analysed the relationships between cattle, pigs, poultry, milk, grass and cereals. JJ introduced it with an outline of his experience of farming and market gardening between 1928 and 1934, when he '..abandoned the unequal struggle and devoted his spare time to poltico-economic agitation..' becoming a Senator in 1938.

13. The full sequence of academic and academic-type publications is abstracted in the 1930s module of the academic stream in the hypertext support documentation.

14. Bishop Berkeley and Kindred Monetary Thinkers; Hermathena LIX p30, 1942. "Whether money is to be considered as having an intrinsic value, or as being a commodity, a standard, a measure, or a pledge, as is variously suggested by writers? And whether the true idea of money, as such, be not altogether that of a ticket or counter?" (Querist, p25, no 23).

15. Some details of this, as well as of the Berkeley paper referenced above, are accessible in the 1940s academic module in the hypertext.

16. There is a reference in the Garnier correspondence to a visit of Cosgrave and MacNeill to Paris on August 31 1923. JJ and Garnier, the executive secretary, were in frequent correspondence during this period, in the Albert Kahn Foundation context, with JJ briefing French public opinion through Garnier's journalism.

17. Dearly as I would like to, I am not going to try to tidy up this loose end now. It must remain on the agenda for researchers in the 'science and government' domain. or perhaps historians of the DIAS and the RIA.

18. Berkeley's Influence as an Economist; Hermathena LXXXII p76, 1953. This paper can be regarded as a review of all JJ's work on Berkeley to date, and I have therefore reproduced it in full in the hypertext. It can perhaps be regarded as the pinnacle of JJ's academic career.

19. Typical of his outreach work during the 1950s was his Sickness of the Irish Economy published by the Irish Association.

20. I have listed all my refereed scientific papers in the 1950s module of the academic stream, along with some expansion of the overview description given here.

21. More detail on JJ's academic 'last fling' is available in the 1960s academic module in the hypertext. JJ's Hermathena publication Monetary Manipulation: Berkeleyan and Otherwise; (CX p32, 1970) it seems he wrote in 1964, including it among the papers which he pulled together into his unpublished 'Consumer Demand as the Basis of Credit', which I have referenced in the SSISI stream. Hermathena in the end accepted it, perhaps because of his impending publication of his Berkeley book.

22. These themes are best over-viewed from Appendix 11 (science and society), Appendix 12 (socio-technical) and Appendix 13 (techno-economic) respectively. I can mention here however my 1996 review of The Science of Empire by Zaheer Baber, published in the Feb 1997 issue of 'Science and Public Policy' (International Science Policy Foundation). The book reviewed was published in 1996 by the State University of New York.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 2002