From Adam Smith to Maynard Keynes : The Heritage of Political Economy

In this survey of the great exponents of the classical tradition, Vincent Bladen examines the thought and works of Adam Smith, T.R. Malthus, Henry Thornton, David Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Karl Marx, W.S. Jevons, Alfred Marshall, and John Maynard Keynes, and relates their views to modern situations. This is a personal introduction by one of Canada’s senior economists to some of the great books in the English literature of political economy. Vincent Bladen wrote it to induce an interest in and an understanding of the economic classics, in the belief that contemplation of those works will increase our understanding of current economic writing and current economic problems. For the purpose of discussing the development of ‘wealth’—the major concern of economists—Bladen defines four periods within the classical tradition, and demonstrates that in each there appeared a characteristic preoccupation with a particular area of economics. From Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill the principal concern was productivity and growth; the neoclassical economists represented by Jevons and Marshall emphasized the problems of allocation of given productive resources; depressions in the twenties and thirties and the impact of Keynesian theory led to a preoccupation with ‘employment,’ and after World War II attention shifted to ‘growth.’ Bladen is critical of previous histories of economic thought: ‘by isolating the treatment of one element in a complex and integrated system of thought they frequently misrepresent each author’s treatment of the particular element.’ In this work he attempts to show each aspect of the work of the economists he has selected in the context of an integrated whole. Contents 7 Foreword 11 Introduction 15 Book One. THE WEALTH OF NATIONS 31 1. The role of labour 31 2. Some problems of terminology 35 3. The Wealth of Nations: the theory of production 41 4. Adam Smith on value 47 5. On distribution 62 6. The neglected and exciting Chapter XI: on the rent of land 75 7. Money 86 8. Productive and unproductive labour 90 9. Saving and investment 97 10. Town and country 103 11. International trade 107 12. Laissez faire 119 13. The education of youth 124 14. The canons of taxation 129 Book Two. THE CLASSICAL ERA: MALTHUS AND RICARDO TO MILL AND MARX 157 Introductory statement 157 1. Malthus and population 158 2. Malthus: the economist 172 3. The paper pound: Thornton, Ricardo, and Malthus 182 4. The Ricardian theory of value and distribution 204 5. John Stuart Mill, general characteristics 234 6. MST's Principles 256 7. Karl Marx 300 Book Three. AFTER MILL 347 Introductory statement 347 1. William Stanley Jevons 350 2. Alfred Marshall 386 3. John Maynard Keynes 433 Notes 520 Bibliography 531 Author index 541 Subject index 545