From The Fitzwilliam
In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, published in 1897, Count Dracula is not only a bloodthirsty killer, but an existential threat to modernism and progress. Contemporary readers of the novel could not help but shiver when Dracula landed at Whitby, England to turn victims into vampires and to turn the economic clock backwards, bringing superstition and an antiquated mentality to Great Britain.
To the economic historian, the biggest danger of Dracula is his potential disruption of civil timekeeping systems, which would undermine railway safety, mail, contracts, and modern commerce generally. Great Britain’s economic prosperity was becoming increasingly dependent on international standards, such as the global adoption of Greenwich Mean Time and the Universal Day. Dracula, whose powers are governed by the sun and the moon rather than clocks and calendars, threatens to destabilise social coordination. If he gained power, he would bring down the economy.
Though Ireland does not play a central role in Dracula, Stoker’s emphasis on time standards and timekeeping in the novel is a critique of Ireland’s policy of being out of step with Greenwich Mean Time. The persistent 25-minute mismatch between mainland Britain and the island of Ireland was sucking the lifeblood out of both economies.
Bram Stoker was born in Dublin on November 8, 1847, the third of seven children born to civil servant Abraham Stoker and Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley. Their eldest son, Sir Thornley Stoker, was a noted surgeon and President of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. The less academically inclined Bram Stoker, after graduating with a B.A. and M.A. from Trinity College Dublin, was able to secure a day job as a civil servant, with the help of his father. This job allowed him to go to the theatre at night, writing reviews for the Evening Mail. Most biographers skip over Stoker’s time as a court clerk but the experience is key to understanding the deep knowledge he had of time policy and its attendant frustrations. A pressing concern after the establishment of Greenwich Mean Time was settling legal time in local jurisdictions. Should courts use GMT or local time? The matter was partially settled in 1858, when legal time was set as a matter of local time, which differed from town to town. Matters were somewhat simplified in 1880, when Dublin Mean Time (kept at Dunsink Observatory) was set as the legal time for all of Ireland at 25 minutes and 21 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time. This was fine for Ireland but perpetually confusing for anyone venturing outside its borders. Dublin Mean Time remained a growing irritation for travellers, the telegraph system, and the railroads. Still, it lasted until after the 1916 Easter Rising, when the Time Act aligned Irish Time with Greenwich Mean Time, despite political opposition.....
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