What price a child? Commodification and Australian adoption practice 1850–1950

The issue of premiums has always proved problematic for advocates of benevolent adoption for whom the involvement of money tainted an exchange that was meant to be grounded in love. This paper argues that the shifting relationship between supply and demand has meant that there has always been a market in children and that adoption was one of the more prominent mechanisms used to regulate that exchange. Drawing on a database of 25000 advertisements placed in Australian newspapers during the so-called century of the child, it analyses the ways in which children were rendered desirable in a competitive market. Analysing the more than 3000 advertisements in which it was made clear that money, known at the time as a premium, was to change hands, it casts new light on the commodification process involved in adoption, identifying a mismatch between the preferences of those seeking and those needing to dispose of children. It identifies a market that was highly responsive to the environment in which it was operating and proved remarkably resilient in the face of the increasing regulation of adoption. By viewing adoption through the lens of the market, it questions the notion that the ‘best interests of the child’ have always necessarily prevailed.     

Reshaping Contractual Unfairness in England 1670–1900

English contract law has offered protection for the vulnerable and exploited for centuries. The most wide-ranging doctrine of contractual unfairness could be found within the Court of Chancery. In Lord Nottingham's time relief extended to a range of situations, loosely held together, with no real unifying structure. Yet even here some common themes emerged. Transactions which fell outside the usury laws were looked at with particular concern. In the eighteenth century Lord Hardwicke attempted to rationalize relief under the rubric of fraud. This was largely a difference in presentation. Under the influence of the rise of legal literature and ideas derived from Will Theory, the nineteenth century might have seen the emergence of a truly coherent doctrine of contractual unfairness. That this did not happen can be attributed to a combination of factors. These include the durability of the notion of fraud, the complexity of contractual unfairness which could not be reduced to a doctrine based on will and the way in which contractual unfairness was bound up with public policy. The substance of relief may have changed less than has often been supposed. Certainly there was no shift from a world in which the courts offered protection to one in which freedom of contract always prevailed. The failure of nineteenth century judges and writers to be more radical has left a legacy of incoherence that is still felt today.     

Raising revenues: an introduction

Raising revenues, although necessary to budgets, has received relatively scant attention from students of public budgeting. This special issue focuses attention on that topic. The contributions to this special issue show the diverse ways in which raising revenues is important.     

Multiple perspectives on the meaning of revenue

The full range of the meaning of revenue emerges from seriously considering how people understand revenues from various perspectives. Explicit discussion of revenue meanings may contribute to improving our understanding of revenue-related phenomena. Insights can be gained from considering revenues from various perspectives. Revenue conceptualizations examined here range from the most immediate one, the notion of resources, to policy devices, mediation of relationships, measurements of political situations, and values. These discussions show that a variety of meanings are associate with revenues and that revenues are at least as fundamental to public budgeting as expenditures.