Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:48:18.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sympathy for the Devil: H. D. Macleod and W.S. Jevons's Theory of Political Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Michael V. White
Michael V. White
Affiliation:
Monash University, Business and Economics, Victoria 3800, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Of the published works by William Stanley Jevons, the marginalist theory of value and distribution in the Theory of Political Economy (1871) is principally remembered by economists today. For Jevons in the early 1870s, however, the reception of the Theory (TPE) had “been of the most discouraging character.” The “recognised professor[s] of the science,” for example, had either ignored or, in the case of J. E. Cairnes, “emphatically repudiated it” (Jevons 1875a, p. 4). In November 1874, buoyed by the publication of the first volume of Leon Walras's Elements of Pure Economics and by correspondence with Walras and other European economists, Jevons presented a defense of the marginalist theory and reply to critics in an address titled “The Progress of the Mathematical Theory of Political Economy.” It was delivered to the Manchester Statistical Society, and was extensively reported in the local newspapers. Jevons used those reports to both publicize and obtain comments on the address before the final version was published in 1875. As some of the papers circulated beyond Manchester, London, readers, for example, could also read or hear of his analysis. In that regard, one component of his argument attracted particular attention.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 311 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alborn, T. L. 1995. “The Moral of the Failed Bank: Professional Plots in the Victorian Money Market.” Victorian Studies 38 (Winter): 199–226.Google Scholar
Allan, D. G. C. 1981. “The Red Doctor among the Virtuosi: Karl Marx and the Society. Part (i).” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 129 (5296): 259–61.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1862. “Economic Science and Statistics.” The Cambridge Chronicle and University Journal 11 (10): 10.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1863. “Mr. Chevalier and Mr. Macleod on Political Economy.” The London Review of Politics, Society, Literature, Art, and Science 6 (144): 365–66.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1864. Untitled review of Manual of Political Economy by Henry Fawcett. The Athenaeum 1910 (06 4): 770–71.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1874. “Mr. Stanley Jevons on Political Economy.” The Examiner 28 (11): 1294–95.Google Scholar
Black, R. D. C. 1962. “W. S. Jevons and the Economists of his Time.” The Manchester School 30 (09): 203–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, R. D. C. 1972. “Jevons, Bentham and De Morgan.” Economica 39 (05): 119–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, R. D. C., ed. 1973–1981. Papers and Correspondence of William Stanley Jevons, Vols. 2–7. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, R. D. C. 1981. “W. S. Jevons, 1835–82.” In O'Brien, D. P. and Presley, J. R., eds. Pioneers of Modern Economics in Britain. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brandis, R. 1980. “Querie.” Bulletin of the History of Economic Thought Society 1 (Winter): 26.Google Scholar
Cairnes, J. E. 1857. The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts.Google Scholar
Cairnes, J. E. 1874. Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Clark, B. & Foster, J. B. 2001. “William Stanley Jevons and The Coal Question.” Organization and Environment 14 (03): 93–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Commons, J. R. 1934. Institutional Economics: Its Place in Political Economy, Vol. 1. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961.Google Scholar
De Morgan, A. 1862. “Science.” The Athenaeum 1829 (11 15): 632.Google Scholar
Dingle, A. E. 1982. “The Monster Nuisance of All: Alkali Manufacturing and Air Pollution, 1828–64.” Economic History Review 35 (11): 529–48.Google ScholarPubMed
Dun, J. 1881. “The Law of Value.” Journal of the Institute of Bankers 11 (1): 1–35.Google Scholar
Evans, D. M. 1859. Facts, Failures and Frauds: Revelations, Financial, Mercantile, Criminal. London: Groombridge.Google Scholar
Fishburn, G. 2000. “Gresham and the Greeks.” Paper presented to the 13th Conference of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Gooch, G. P. 1920. Life of Lord Courtney. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Grattan-Guinness, I. 2002. “In Some Parts Rather Rough: A Recently Discovered Manuscript Version of William Stanley Jevons's ‘General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy’.” History of Political Economy 34 (Winter): 685–726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groenewegen, P. D. 1987. “Political Economy and Economics.” In Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray and Newman, Peter, eds, The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Vol. 3. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Harris, C. A. 1987. “Gresham's Law.” In Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, eds, The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Vol. 2. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1937. “Macleod, Henry Dunning.” In Seligman, E. R. A., ed., Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 9. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Howey, R. S. 1981. “Dodgson and Macleod: Answer to Querie.” Bulletin of the History of Economic Thought Society 2 (Winter): 23–24.Google Scholar
Hutton, R. H. 1852. “Money and Morals.” Prospective Review 8 (08): 423–455.Google Scholar
Jaffe, W., ed. 1965. Correspondence of Leon Walras and Related Papers, Vol. 1. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1863. “Notice of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy.” Report of the Thirty-second Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. London: Murray.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1866. “Brief Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy.” Journal of the Statistical Society 29 (06): 282–87.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1871. The Theory of Political Economy. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1875a. “The Progress of the Mathematical Theory of Political Economy, with an Explanation of the Principles of the Theory.” Transactions of the Manchester Statistical Society Session 1874–75, pp. 1–19.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1875b. Money and the Mechanism of Exchange. London: King.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1878. Political Economy. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1884. Investigations in Currency and Finance, edited by Foxwell, H. S.. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1905. The Principles Of Economics: A Fragment of a Treatise on the Industrial Mechanism of Society and other Papers, edited by Higgs, H.. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. S. 1970. The Theory of Political Economy, edited by Black, R. D. Collison. Harmonds-worth: Pelican.Google Scholar
Kurz, H. D. 1990. “Classical and Early Neoclassical Economists on Joint Production.” In Salvadori, Neri and Steedman, Ian, eds, Joint Production of Commodities. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
La Nauze, J. A. 1940. “The Modern Use of ‘Economist’.” Economic Record 16 (06): 125–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leslie, T. E. C. 1875a. Untitled review of Principles of Economical Philosophy by H. D. Macleod. The Academy 7 (10 04): 364–65.Google Scholar
Leslie, T. E. C. 1875b. “The History of German Political Economy.” In Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy. Dublin/London: Hodges, Foster & Figgs/Longman, Green & Co., 1879.Google Scholar
Leslie, T. E. C. 1878. “Political Economy.” The Academy (30 March): 273–75.Google Scholar
Maas, H. 2001. Mechanical Reasoning: William Stanley Jevons and the Making of Modern Economics. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1855. The Theory and Practice of Banking: With the Elementary Principles of Currency; Credit; and Exchanges, Vol. 1. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1856. The Theory and Practice of Banking; With the Elementary Principles of Currency; Credit; and Exchanges, Vol. 2. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1858. The Elements of Political Economy. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1862. On the Definition and Nature of the Science of Political Economy. Cambridge and London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1863. A Dictionary of Political Economy: Biographical, Bibliographical, Historical, and Practical, Vol. 1. London: Longman, Brown, Longmans and Roberts.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1872. The Principles of Economical Philosophy, Vol 1. London: Longmans, Brown, Green, Reader and Dyer.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1875a. “What is Political Economy?” Contemporary Review 25 (05): 871–93.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1875b. The Principles of Economical Philosophy, Vol. 2. London: Longmans, Brown, Green, Reader and Dyer.Google Scholar
Macleod, H. D. 1896. The History of Economics. London: Bliss Sands & Co.Google Scholar
Maitland, F. W. 1906. The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephen. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Mason, J. W. 1980. “Political Economy and the Response to Socialism in Britain, 1870–1914.” Historical Journal 23 (3): 565–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medema, S. G. 1999. “Legal Fiction: The Place of the Coase Theorem in Law and Economics.” Economics and Philosophy 15 (2): 209–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milgate, M. & Levy, A. 1987. “Macleod, Henry Dunning.” In Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, eds, The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Vol. 3. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1909. Principles of Political Economy, edited by SirAshley, William. New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1987.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1972. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Vol. 15, edited by Mineka, Francis M. and Lindley, Dwight N.. Toronto: Routledge and Kegan Paul/University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Moffat, R. S. 1878. The Economy of Consumption: An Omitted Chapter in Political Economy. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Moore, G. 2000. “Nicholson versus Ingram on the History of Political Economy and a Charge of Plagiarism.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 22 (12): 433–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mosley, S. 1996. “The Smoke Nuisance and Environmental Reformers in Late Victorian Manchester.” Manchester Region History Review 10: 40–47.Google Scholar
Price, B. 1879. “Is Political Economy a Science?” Quarterly Review 147 (01): 182–202.Google Scholar
Robertson, R. M. 1951. “Jevons and his Precursors.” Econometrica 19 (07): 222–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargant, W. L. 1867. Recent Political Economy. London/Edinburgh and Birmingham: Norgate and Williams/Benjamin Hull.Google Scholar
Schabas, M. 1990. A World Ruled by Number: William Stanley Jevons and the Rise of Mathematical Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmonds, P. L. 1873. Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances. London: Robert Hardwicke.Google Scholar
Simpson, A. W. B. 1995. Leading Cases in the Common Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Stigler, G. J. 1941. Production and Distribution Theories: The Formative Period. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Taylor, W. C. 1844. Factories & the Factory System: From Parliamentary Documents and Personal Examination. London: Jeremiah How.Google Scholar
Tooke, T. & Newmarch, W. 1857. A History of Prices and of the State of the Circulation, During the Years 1848–1856, Vol. 5. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts.Google Scholar
Waley, J. 1867. “On Strikes and Combinations, with Reference to Wages and the Conditions of Labour.” Journal of the Statistical Society 30 (03): 1–20.Google Scholar
Whately, R. 1832. Introductory Lectures on Political Economy. Being Part of a Course Delivered in Easter Term mdcccxxxi, 2nd edition. London: Fellowes.Google Scholar
Whately, R. 1853. Easy Lessons on Money Matters for the Use of Young People, 13th edition. London: Parker.Google Scholar
Whewell, W. 1847. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon their History, Vol. 2, 2nd edition. London: Parker.Google Scholar
Whitaker, J. K. 1994. “Marshall's Third Review.” Marshall Studies Bulletin 4: 3–8.Google Scholar
White, M. V. 1994. “Bridging the Natural and the Social: Science and Character in Jevons' Political Economy.” Economic Inquiry 32 (07): 429–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. V. 2001. “Indeterminacy in Exchange: Disinterring Jevons' Trading Bodies.” The Manchester School 69 (03): 208–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. V. 2003. “Some Difficulties with Sunspots and Mr. Macleod: Adding to the Bibliography of W. S. Jevons.” History of Economics Review 38 (Summer): 33–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, M. V. 2004. “In the Lobby of the Energy Hotel: Jevons Formulation of the Post-Classical Economic Problem.” History of Political Economy 36 (2): 227–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar