British Anti-Classical Economists
(see also our section on the Continental Proto-Marginalists)
Early Anti-Classicals
- Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847 -
(1)
- Enquiry into the Extent and Stability of National Resources,
1808
- Political Economy: in connection with the moral state and prospects
of society, 1832. (1853
review in Blackwood's)
- "Political
Economy of a Famine", 1847, North British Review
- Miscellanies; embracing reviews, essays, and addresses,
1851
- Lectures on the Epistle of Paul the apostle to the
Romans, 1874
- Discourses on the Christian revelation, viewed in connection with the modern
astronomy. To which are added, Discourses illustrative of the connection between theology & general
science, 1855
- Sermons
and Discourses, 1873
- Evangelical Scottish divine, leader of Presbyterian church efforts on
poor relief. Chalmers was perhaps the only strict follower of Malthus
both on the population question (which he viewed as an opportunity to
enhance Christian education) and general
gluts.
- Michael Thomas Sadler,
1780-1835 - (1),
(2),
(3), (4)
- Ireland, Its Evils and their Remedies, 1828
- The Law of Population, 1832
- Radical Tory MP, opponent of Catholic emancipation and leader of the
factory reform movement. Opposed Malthus's
population doctrine, argued that fertility actually declines with rising
income. Famously attacked in the Edinburgh Review by Thomas
Macauley.
- Samuel Bailey, 1791-1870 - (1)
- A Letter to a Political Economist, occasioned by an article in the
Westminster Review on the subject of value, 1826.
- Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions, 1821
- A Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measure and Causes of
Value,
1825
- "On the Nature, Measure and Causes of Value", Westminster
Review, 1826.
- Essays on the Pursuit of Truth and on the
Progress of Knowledge, 1829.
- Rationale of Political Representation, 1835.
- Theory of Reasoning, 1851.
- Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1855-63.
- Pointed out the logical difficulties of both the labor theory of value
and Ricardo's "invariable measure". An early promoter of the
the theory of scarcity and the generalization of the Ricardian theory of
rent, thus can be considered a precursor of the Marginalist
Revolution.
- George Jules Poulett Scrope,
1797-1876.
- "The Political Economists", 1831, Quarterly Review
- "Malthus and Sadler, on Population and
Emigration", 1831, Quarterly Review
- "The Archbishops of Dublin on Political Economy", 1831, Quarterly
Review
- "Jones on the Doctrine of Rent", 1831, Quarterly Review
- Principles
of Political-Economy: Deducted from the natural laws of social welfare,
and applied to the present state of Britain, 1833
- Pioneering geologist and politician with an interest in political
economy. Avid opponent Malthus's
population doctrine.
- Francis Davy Longe,
1813-80
- A Refutation of the Wage-Fund Theory of Modern Political Economy as
enunciated by Mr. Mill, MP and Mr. Fawcett, M.P., 1866.
- The first to demolish the Ricardian
wages-fund doctrine.
- William Thomas Thornton,,
1813-80
- Over-population and its Remedy. 1845
- A Plea for Peasant Properietors, 1848
- On Labour: Its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues, its actual
present and possible future 1869 (review by
Mill)
- Indian Public Works and Cognate Topics, 1875.
- East India Company employee who helped demolish the Ricardian
wages-fund doctrine. His 1869 book forced his good friend,
John Stuart Mill, to recant that
doctrine.
The Oxford-Dublin Proto-Marginalists
- Nassau William Senior,
1790-1864.
- William Forster Lloyd,
1795-1852
Other British Proto-Marginalists
- William Edward Hearn, 1826-88
- Theory of Legal Rights and Duties: An Introduction to Analytical Jurisprudence.
- Plutology: the theory of the efforts to satisfy human wants, 1836.
- Erudite Irish-born Australian professor of Greek at the University of Melbourne. His
anti-Classical 1836 text stressed the demand side of price-determination, following Rae
and the Oxford-Dublin school (esp. Longfield)
- Richard Jennings
- Natural Elements of Political Economy , 1855.
- Emphasized reduction of economics to human psychology. Discussed diminishing marginal utility, but did not
really apply it systematically to be able to derive demand.
- Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin
, 1833-85.- (1),
(2)
- "Trades Unons: How Far Legitimate?", 1858, North Briton
Review,
- The Graphical Representation of the Laws of Supply and Demand, and
their application to labour, 1870.
- "On the Principles which Regulate the Incidence of Taxes",
1871, Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh
- Edinburgh engineer and inventor. Provided a remarkable pre-Edgeworth
demonstration of the indeterminacy of barter and diagrammatic representation of partial
market equilibrium using supply and demand curves. It was Jenkin's work that
precipitated Jevons to write and publish his
revolutionary 1871 volume.
Resources on the British Anti-Classicals