Two Irish finance ministers have had streets or roads named after them: Michael Collins (Collins Avenue) and John Foster (Foster Place).
John Foster was effectively Ireland’s first modern minister for finance, serving in this role from 1777 to 1811.
In 18th century Ireland, the parliament in Dublin’s College Green was populated by the local landed gentry. Foster, from Collon, was MP for Louth for most of his adult life.
In 1777, he first took on the role of managing the finances of the country, and was formally appointed chancellor of the exchequer in 1784. In September 1785, he was elected speaker of the Irish House of Commons, a post he held till the parliament was abolished by the Act of Union in 1800.
READ MORE
With no Department of Finance in Dublin, Foster was a one-man band. His voluminous papers in the Public Records Office in Belfast attest to his amazing work rate; he engaged in correspondence with a huge range of people.
Irish economic development was always Foster’s key focus. In 1781, he was instrumental in establishing the Bank of Ireland by Act of Parliament, which had some functions of today’s Central Bank.
He took a keen interest in monetary policy, and tried to align Irish and British interest rates in 1788. After the Act of Union, he chaired a UK parliamentary committee on the exchange rate between Ireland and Britain.
Like ministers today, he consulted widely and sought advice on the economy, particularly from business people. He collected data on trade and output from around the country.
He enacted one of the most innovative pieces of business legislation, the 1782 Anonymous Partnerships Act, which established a form of limited liability company, 70 years before Westminster legislated in this area. Limited companies are today seen as an essential feature of a thriving economy.
The 1782 Act drew on French laws. Foster circulated a draft of his Bill to five business people to get their advice, including to Drogheda wine merchant Edward Hardman. Hardman’s copy of the draft bill, with his comments, can be read in Belfast’s Public Record Office.
While the Anonymous Partnership Act could have been a game changer, Ireland’s economic and political problems in the first half of the 19th century meant only 500 companies were established under it in the 70 years before it was overtaken by Westminster’s limited liability legislation in the 1850s.
Unlike our Ceann Comhairle, Foster as speaker of the House of Commons was not detached from day-to-day government. He continued to manage the economy and pursue policy in that role, with a level of power more akin to the speaker of the US House of Representatives.
Foster invested a lot of effort in negotiating better trade terms between Ireland and Britain, dealing with the minutiae that come with tariff regimes. One complication he encountered was when Portugal, which had a trade agreement with Britain, claimed it did not apply to Ireland – early echoes of Brexit.
[ From the archive: Profound impact of Act of Union echoes across two centuriesOpens in new window ]
Like a true finance minister, he was very proud of the fact that he managed to balance the Irish government accounts between 1786 and 1794. However, once war started with France, he could not control the sharp rise in borrowing.
An early environmentalist, Foster planted many trees on his Collon estate, including Ireland’s first copper beeches. He established the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin in 1795 with a grant of £5,000, with a focus on promoting agriculture.
Like another finance minister, Bertie Ahern, the Botanic Gardens remained close to Foster’s heart, and he took an active interest in its affairs into the 1820s.
Foster was one of the biggest customers of his wine merchant friend, Hardman, who wrote to his French supplier in 1783 for the best champagne, as a loss leader to bring in business.
From the early 1780s Foster’s debt to Hardman for wine continually rose, but was never paid. By the early 1800s it was around £1,500, a huge sum for the time.
However, the pay-off was that, with Foster’s support, Hardman was elected MP for Drogheda in 1798, serving in the UK parliament till 1806.
Irish elections were notably venal, but in 1785 Foster turned down the offer of a huge bribe to provide government subsidies for mining in Arigna. Like other MPs, including Hardman, he was offered large sums to vote for the Act of Union in 1800. Both resisted.
Nevertheless, from 1804 to 1811 he again had ministerial responsibility for Ireland’s finances, this time as part of the London government.
Will Paschal Donohoe emulate the longevity of John Foster’s career, managing Ireland’s finances for another decade or more?
