Educated briefly at the University of Berlin, Hirsch left school and embarked on a career as a commercial traveller when he was 19. He travelled extensively in Persia, Ceylon, Italy and Australia on a variety of commercial enterprises. He became interested in economics while in Ceylon where he helped, through the production of pamphlets, to overturn the very oppressive rice tax. In 1890, he moved to Melbourne and helped to found the Victoria Single Tax League, based on the theories of Henry George. He served as president of the league for ten years. He gave up his commercial work in 1892 and devoted himself to writing and forwarding the theories of free trade and land value taxation. His best work was Democracy versus Socialism which appeared in 1901 to critical acclaim. Hirsch attempted to achieve political office and served briefly in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 1902 to late 1903. Subsequent attempts failed and reverted to commercial life in 1908. He travelled to Vladivostok on business later that year, but died there in early 1909 from liver cancer. His many works include The Fiscal Superstition (1895), Economic Principles:A Manual of Political Economy (1896), Social Conditions (1901), An Analysis of the Proposals and Conceptions of Socialism (1904), Land Values Taxation in Practice (1910 Posthumous) and The Problem of Wealth and Other Essays (1911 Posthumous). |
