There is no Christmas story like A Christmas Carol, and few seasonal characters as iconic as Ebenezer Scrooge; the ‘clutching, covetous old sinner’ who finds redemption in the abandonment of sound business sense and the joy of Christmas cheer. Scrooge’s name has become a byword for miserly conduct, with Jeremy Hunt the latest to claim the mantle as he raised taxes last month. But this depiction of Scrooge as Mr Bah Humbug is deeply unfair. He deserves better.
For economists like me, there is much to admire about Scrooge the moneylender, who did rather more for human welfare than the late-in-the-day Scrooge filled with the spirit of Christmas. Even Dickens concedes that Scrooge possessed some good qualities; the first paragraph of A Christmas Carol establishes his reputation as an honourable and trustworthy man; his name is ‘good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to’. It is on this bedrock that the defence of Scrooge will be built.
Men like Scrooge – early venture capitalists – built this country
A Christmas Carol takes place in the 1830s, between the creation of the New Poor Law and the burning down of the Royal Exchange.
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