Foreigners and Englishmen

This book marks the first serious study of an important but neglected subject in the history of early-modern England: the vigorous controversy that unfolded over immigration policy, population growth, and the presence of foreigners in English society from the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the accession of George III a century later. This period witnessed demographic contraction or stagnation in most parts of Europe, and at the same time the last of the waves of large-scale inter-European migrations that began at the time of the Reformation. In analyzing the tensions created in England as a result of these broader European patterns, the book seeks to explore the connection between population and migration in the period. . Inspired by a faith that encouraging the immigration of foreign Protestants from Europe would solve the problems of depopulation and economic stagnation, partisans sought to throw open England's doors to new settlers. Pleas for the naturalization of foreigners were articulated within the burgeoning discourse on trade after the Restoration; and the debate over population and migration represented a crucial episode in the development of economic thought before Adam Smith. The immigration controversy provides powerful evidence of a shift toward a more strictly economic and less paternalistic social vision in these years, as the forces of commercialization began to transform English society.