The English Historical School
It would be hard to imagine that the land which gave the world the inductive and
empirical methods of Bacon and Macaulay should suddenly allow abstract theoretical constructions
of Classical Political Economists such as Adam Smith,
David Ricardo and John Stuart Mill reign unchallenged throughout Britain. Indeed, from
the very start, empiricist opposition to Classical theory was mustered throughout Britain
- culminating, then, in the "English Historical School", akin but not identical
to its German and French
counterparts.
Early English Historicists
- Richard Jones
, 1790-1855. - image, (1), (2),
(3)
- An
Essay on the Distribution of Wealth and on the Sources of Taxation, 1831.
- An Introductory Lecture on Political Economy, 1833.
- Literary Remains,
- Anglican clergyman and Malthus's successor at
Haileybury. Jones attacked the Ricardians
for their theory of rent, their wages fund doctrine, their lack of empirical content and pretensions to "scientific" universalism. A full inductivist in his method,
Jones gave his relativistic theory an evolutionary flavor - but an optimistic one.
Highly influential on Whewell.
The English Historical School
- John Kells Ingram
, 1823-1907. (1), (2)
- "The Position and Prospects of Political Economy", 1878, BAAS
- History
of Political Economy , 1888.
- Not an economist at allProfessor of Greek at Dublin. Follower of French sociologist Auguste
Comte, he deplored the materialism, ideology,
abstractionism and scientism of Classical theory, arguing
instead for a institutional and historical treatment of economics under the Comte-like
umbrella of "sociology". Very much influenced by the German Historical School.
- Rev, James Edwin Thorold Rogers
, 1823-90.
- History of Agriculture and Prices in England, 1259-1793, 1866-1902.
- Manual of Political Economy for Schools, 1868
- "Causes
of Commercial Depression", 1879, Princeton Review
- "Labor
and Wages in England", 1879, Princeton Review
- Six Centuries of Work and Wages, 1884
- The Economic Interpretation of History, 1888.
- The relations of Economic Science to Social and Political Action, 1888.
- The Industrial and Commercial History of England, 1892.
- English historicist at King's College, London and later holder of the
Drummond Chair at Oxford. Thorold Rogers's greatest work was a massive, eight-volume
quantitative
analysis of prices. Although a defender of laissez-faire,
Thorold Rogers's attacks on the
abstractionism of Classicals in several polemical pieces which almost ruined him
professionally. Ironically, he was succeeded at Oxford by F.Y.Edgeworth.
- Arnold Toynbee
, 1852-1883. - (1) (2)
- Lectures
on the Industrial Revolution in England, 1884.
- Famous controversial historian, Toynbee was the first to historically identify and name
the British "Industrial Revolution". His analysis of monopolies and oligopolies
was prescient. He was a thorough historicist and adhered to the inductive method. A social
activist and humanitarian, he was also an opponent of laissez-faire economic
policy.
- William J. Ashley
, 1860-1927. - (1), (2)
- An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory , 1888-93.
- "The Tory
Origin of Free Trade Policy", 1879, QJE
- Perhaps the English thinker closest to the German Historicists,
Ashley attacked the universalism and abstractionism of Classical and Neoclassical theory.
An opponent of laissez-faire, he was also a proponent of imperialism and
state-industry-labor corporatism.
- Richard H. Tawney
, 1880-1962. - (1),
(2), (3)
- The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century, 1912. - review
- The Acquisitive Society, 1920.
- Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, 1926.
- Equality, 1930.
- Economic historian, social critic and Fabian
socialist,
Tawney's famous 1920 tract is a classic of radical literature. His 1926 book is a
study of the role of religion in the rise of capitalism, akin to that of
Weber and the German Historical School.
His 1930 book was a blueprint for Labour government activism.
Resources on English Historicism