Presenting a truly comprehensive history of Basic Income, Malcolm Torry explores the evolution of the concept of a regular unconditional income for every individual, as well as examining other types of income as they relate to its history. Examining the beginnings of the modern debate at the end of the eighteenth century right up to the current global discussion, this book draws on a vast array of original historical sources and serves as both an in-depth study of, and introduction to, Basic Income and its history.

Commencing with Thomas Paine‘s advocacy for Basic Capital and Thomas Spence‘s for a Basic Income, Torry analyses thought from a variety of authors during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and explores the widespread debate across Europe from the 1980s to the present day. Chapters further investigate a terminologically diverse debate in Canada and the USA and highlight the significance of recent research on feasibility in the UK.



Concluding with a study of the anatomy of what is now a single global debate about Basic Income, this book will be of value to policy makers, students and scholars of Basic Income, social and economic history, and the economics of social policy.