Synopsis
This Eighth Edition (1920) reports the most authoritative rendering of the school of thought known as the Classical Economics. The position of leading economist of the leading school of economic• thought could probably be ascribed to Alfred Marshall. For many years he has ranked as the dean of English economic writers and thinkers. He still so ranks. Alfred Marshall's (1890) “Principles of Economics” stands as the most systematic and most authoritative presentation of the classical point of view and body of doctrine. Thus far both advocates and opponents of classical theory agree. His work continues the system of thought that, developing through the contributions of a series of brilliant and masterly thinkers from Ricardo and Keynes down to the present time, and exercising a controlling influence in the field of social doctrine and outlook as well as of political and economic policy, it still holds its world-wide primacy in all of these fields. It is in this emphasis, then, that a study of Marshall as first among the neo-classical writers in economics is undertaken. And it is thus that the lines of distinction between what was implicitly part of the classical doctrine and what was essentially Marshall's thought, are almost impossible to draw. In Marshall's thought, indeed, any lines of this sort could hardly have existed. And even had any been possible of drawing, he would have been first in protest against the attempt. There were, to be sure, numerous other writers belonging to the same general body of thinking and significant in many respects, but of lesser eminence or of smaller influence in doctrinal aspects. Mainly because of his time, but somewhat also on account of the quality of his thought, Adam Smith was not a systematizer; instead he was a catholic commentator, to whom very nearly all doctrines in modern economics, and still more clearly all schools of doctrine, trace their beginnings. Doctrinally Malthus was mainly a dissenter, an annotator also rather than a systematizer, but none the less a thinker of extraordinary insight, whose influence was mostly lost in the sweeping Ricardian ascendancy. Similarly with Jean-Baptiste Say. Wm. Stanley Jevons also belonged, for better or worse, to a divergent emphasis and trend. In the main, then, we are committed to a study of Ricardian economics in the Marshall interpretations, supplementations and extensions. What, then, in broad outlines is the classical economics-first, as Marshall found it, and second, as Marshall left it? Never inhospitable to new truth for the supplementation and extension of classical generalizations, and jealous always to incorporate whatever in later thought could best be made to serve the purposes of enrichment or of better articulation, Marshall remained steadfastly convinced of the essential validity ... and finality of the classical body of doctrine. With him further to improve was merely the better to defend. — H. J. Davenport (1935), “The Economics of Alfred Marshall.” Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (Extract from the Introduction.) 8th Edition (1920) Complete and Unabridged 694 pages (7.5 x 9.25 in.). This book includes an illustrated biography of Alfred Marshall.
About the Author
Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) is widely regarded as the doyen of modern economics and the founder of the Neoclassical School of Economics; he is best known for revolutionising the teaching of economics. In 1865 Alfred Marshall was elected to a fellowship at St John's College, Cambridge, UK, he became a lecturer in moral sciences in 1868 and in 1885 he was awarded Professorship in Political Economy at Cambridge where he remained until his retirement in 1908. Marshall's magnus opus Principles of Economics was first published in 1890 to worldwide acclaim and it cemented his reputation as one of the leading economists of his time.
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