From Adam Smith to Maynard Keynes : : The Heritage of Political Economy / / Vincent Bladen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Bladen, Vincent,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]; ©1974
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (548 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Book One. THE WEALTH OF NATIONS -- 1. The role of labour -- 2. Some problems of terminology -- 3. The Wealth of Nations: the theory of production -- 4. Adam Smith on value -- 5. On distribution -- 6. The neglected and exciting Chapter XI: on the rent of land -- 7. Money -- 8. Productive and unproductive labour -- 9. Saving and investment -- 10. Town and country -- 11. International trade -- 12. Laissez faire -- 13. The education of youth -- 14. The canons of taxation -- Book Two. THE CLASSICAL ERA: MALTHUS AND RICARDO TO MILL AND MARX -- Introductory statement -- 1. Malthus and population -- 2. Malthus: the economist -- 3. The paper pound: Thornton, Ricardo, and Malthus -- 4. The Ricardian theory of value and distribution -- 5. John Stuart Mill, general characteristics -- 6. MST's Principles -- 7. Karl Marx -- Book Three. AFTER MILL -- Introductory statement -- 1. William Stanley Jevons -- 2. Alfred Marshall -- 3. John Maynard Keynes -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Author index -- Subject index