EP Thompson’s moral economy and legacy

Abstract

This article offers a critical commentary upon historian EP Thompson’s pioneering research, carried out between the 1960s and 1980s, into the notion of moral economy. It addresses the main features of Thompson’s moral economy, his methodology and his profound, but also contested and ambivalent legacy to subsequent scholars. Set within the specific historical context of eighteenth-century England, Thompson’s moral economy revealed in new and original ways the often strained and conflict-ridden relations and actions between the working population and its rulers around the marketing of food and the price of bread. Thompson paid particular attention to food riots. They clearly illustrated the conflict, between, on the one hand, the traditional regulatory customs of some of the ruled and their supporters and the ‘free-market’ innovations of increasing numbers of their rulers. Thompson offered a historical-materialist reading of moral economy, situated in social contexts, relations and actions as well as in values and norms. Having addressed key empirical and methodological issues, the article proceeds to a critical examination of Thompson’s legacy. This covers the deep and widespread influence of Thompson’s moral economy, academically and geographically, its weaknesses as well as strengths and the ways in which he responded to reviews. In the last section, ‘Moral economy at the crossroads’, the article outlines and comments upon some of the key characteristics of the recent and ongoing single-, multi- and cross-disciplinary proliferation of studies of moral economy. It concludes by briefly indicating the ways in which future research into moral economy may fruitfully develop.