Victorian Literature: Sixty Years of Books and BookmenShorter, Clement King
History
Victorian Literature: Sixty Years of Books and Bookmen
Shorter, Clement King
English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism
But first let me point to the number of political economists who have
followed Mill in the discussion of the relation of society to the
"wealth" it produces. Mill's "Political Economy" was more of a
systematic summary of the prevailing doctrines than an original work. It
long formed, however, the basis of ordinary English knowledge on the
subject, and by its adhesion to the Wages Fund and other erroneous
theories, it did not a little harm as well as good to Economic Science.
Mill's most enthusiastic disciple in economics, =Henry Fawcett
(1833-1884)=, went far beyond his master in his acceptance of the main
doctrines of the Ricardo school. Many of the positions maintained in his
"Political Economy" were abandoned by Mill before his death,
particularly the Wages Fund theory; and in his "Autobiography" he traced
his own progress to views which, as he said, would class him "under the
general designation of Socialist." He declared himself in favour of "the
common ownership in the raw material of the globe, and an equal
participation of all in the benefits of combined labour."[18]
Professor Fawcett, who published his "Manual of Political Economy" in
1863, continued to the last to hold to the old views, and especially to
favour as little as possible the intervention of the State. As member of
Parliament, first for Brighton and afterwards for Hackney, he did great
service by his criticisms of Indian finance. For more than four years
(1880-1884) he held the position of Postmaster-General, and introduced
many valuable reforms into the department under his administration.
Other economists of importance, =John Elliott Cairnes (1824-1875)= and
=William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882)=, have differed from Mill in many
theoretic principles; but the fairest survey of the later developments
of Mill's economics is given by =Henry Sidgwick (1838- )=,
Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, and by Alfred
Marshall (born 1842). In his "Principles of Political Economy" (1883)
Sidgwick attempts, with great clearness, to criticise the conflicting
views of the older economists in the light of the modern and more
socialist views. He also attempts in his "Methods of Ethics" (1874) a
compromise between the Utilitarian and the Intuitionist schools, and he
does this also in his "Elements of Politics" (1891), a comprehensive
survey of political science. Mr Marshall, who holds the Chair of
Political Economy at Cambridge, has written "Economics of Industry"
(1879), and "Principles of Economics" (1890). A writer who did much to
make foreign economists known in England, and who seemed at one time
destined to be the able leader of a new school, was =Thomas Edward
Cliffe Leslie (1827-1882)=, whose "Essays" are full of terse and
suggestive criticism. Cliffe Leslie died, however, without writing any
work of first-rate importance. He did something, however, following the
line of writers like Richard Jones (1790-1855), to bring academic theory
to the test of actual facts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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