A Short History of the Rise and Fall of Political Economy

Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1. Evolution of Political Economy Chapter 2. The Founders Chapter 3. A Gloomy Shadow Chapter 4. Antagonism and Associationism Chapter 5. Liberalism Chapter 6. The Downhill Journey Chapter 7. Dissenssion Chapter 8. State Socialists Chapter 9. Prelude to Marxism Chapter 10. Towards the End of XIX th Century Chapter 11. Dawn of Marxism Chapter 12. Epilogue: The Demise Literature Index Editor's Note History, though a bad master, is an excellent teacher. It narrates the events and facts that have occurred in the history of evolution of mankind. History is an account of the rise and fall of nations, their customs and traditions, culture, science and technology. Every major upheaval that had ever taken place in the past, had invariably given rise to a new system, adapting the old ones allowing changes in it, and has affected not only the then prevailing conditions, but has always led to certain future political, socio-economic, philosophical, and scientific transformations. In general, the history of development of economic philosophies and doctrines has the same spirit and approach. It narrates the facts of the past to help us mould the future. This volume on the history of economic thought has a dual purpose. In the first place, it not only intends to remind us of the past events and their impact on our future, but also to caution us, not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Secondly, it has a scholistic ambition. It intends to promote among readers an interest for the development of scientific economic thought. In view of the latter, it should be noted that after the WW II the study of the decipline (History of Economic Doctrines, which used to be a part and parcel of the post graduate teaching world around) particularly, was been marred by the growing orientation for technical microeconomics. The author, in this volume, attempts to recreate an interest in the subject and to rejuvinate the science by reminding us of its history. The period he basically covers is, from 1750 to 1925. The author of this Short History of Rise and Fall of Political Economy, is an internationally reputed teacher of economics for about six decades now. Since, he has a keen interest in philosophy, history, and economics; in most of his writings, he tries to synthesise them. His writings are well recognized for his knack of the topics that define historical changes and socio-economic trends in social phenomena, because these are net product of a historical process and the then prevailing environment. This volume provides us with an insight in the philosophical, socio-economic and political thought of the time that revolved around the concepts of Political Economy. The author offers us here a vision of the real functioning of the world to help us draw conclusions from both, orthodox and heterodox, economic doctrines, such as to develop a more coherent analysis of issues, e.g., free market, the role of the State and state-craft, production and distribution, accumulation of capital, growth and development, crises and many other dominant controversial issues. Preface I take pleasure in presenting to the readers a concise volume on the history of economic doctrines. Since, this volume is primarily deemed as a compendium for the university students, A Short History of the Rise and Fall of Political Economy, is my modest attempt to pesent a synthetic review of the history of economic doctrines in Eurpean theatre during XVII th to XIX th centuries. The book might be of some interest to all those who are interested to learn of the ultimate fate of the science of political economy. Lest someone indicts me for plagiarsm, at the very outset, I must stress that it is not an original piece of research. What is presented here in the following pages are the views of the great economic thinkers of the time. What I have endevored here is just to gather the details, put them in a sequential oredr, edit, assess and comment them (in sqaure brackets) and present to the readers. The original works of these economists are properly cited. Footnotes are provided along with the sources and some additional relevant information on the subject. For chronological order I have used three major textbooks on the subject: