Count Dracula, as a character, has a lot of mystery surrounding him (at least at this point in the book, having read up to Chapter 9). The supplemental essay by Castle offers a few theories of what he represents to the historical value of the novel as Stoker might have intended.
On page 521, the theory that Dracula "...represents the 'return of the repressed,'" is brought up. Page 529 offers the idea that he "represents [a] monstrous 'parasitic social formation.'" These are both interesting ideas that hadn't even crossed my mind while reading. The essay on "The New Historicism and Dracula" discusses the idea of new historicism and describes new historicists as critics who "...view history as a social science and the social sciences as being properly historical." (p. 502)
"Many of the social issues alluded to in Dracula - social decadence, racial degeneration, poverty, disease..., the fear of immigration from the colonies - were very much English concerns." (521)
This is only one of many sentences alluding to the fact that the new historicist perspective on the novel has some literary weight to it.
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To support the statements in your post, I think it is worth noting that Stoker was born during the Great Famine in Ireland and grew up with many diseases. This works directly with the issues of poverty and disease alluded to that Castle wrote about. This is vital if studying via the perspective of New Historicism. I don't see how supporters of New Criticism could disregard important facts such as these.
With works like these, heavy in subtle symbols and ideas it is always important to think as broadly as possible, like you said in ways you had not thought of, before passing a judgment on the meaning of the work. Also as Barry stated the life in which the write lived also plays an important and influential role in the meaning of the work adding to the importance of such historical facts.
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