1. John Ruskin
British Artist, Scientist, Poet, Environmentalist, Philosopher
The leading art critic of Victorian England
Wrote and thought as early environmentalist
Published Unto this Last as a series until public protest called a halt

2. Ruskin Themes Include Political vs. Mercantile Economy
Definition of Money - value and virtue of money
Scarcity vs. Abundance Mentality
Relationship between Rich and Poor
Wealth is power over people
Healthy, happy educated people are real wealth
Economy: circulation of wealth like blood in body

3. Ralph Waldo Emerson
American essayist, poet, and leader of Transcendentalism movement
Graduate of Harvard Divinity School - seven ancestors were ministers
Great champion of the individual and self-reliance

4. Emerson - Themes
Need for all men to be producers – contribute to society
Man is born to be rich
But not all will succeed
Poverty demoralizes – a man in debt is so far a slave
The basis of wealth is the application of mind to nature - wealth comes to those who seize opportunities
“The craft of the merchant is this bringing of goods from where they abound to where they are costly”
Wealth has its own system of checks and balances
Matter pays her debt
The basis of political economy is non-interference

5. Measures of Economy
Each man’s expense must proceed from his character – “as long as your genius buys, the investment is safe…”
Spend after your genius, and by system – “the secret of success lies…in the relation of income to outgo”
Help comes in the custom of the country, and the rule of Impera Parendo - “Things themselves refuse to be mismanaged”
Look for seed of the same kind as you sow – story of Furlong and Hotspur
All things ascend + absorb and invest