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Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) - economist, critical essayist and government adviser - was a highly original classical economist in the era between Ricardo's Principles of 1817 and Mill's Principles of 1848. He was the first Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, and in his published works he made original contributions to the theory of value, rent, population, money, and international trade. Senior was an active proponent of laissez-faire. Although Senior did not achieve the originality and influence of the leading economists of the classical school - Smith, Ricardo, and Malthus - he did make an enduring contribution on the development of economics. John Stuart Mill took much effort to respond to Senior.
E-Book Content
AN
OUTLINE OF THE
SCIENCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY By NASSAU W.
SENIOR
REPRINTS OF ECONOMIC CLASSICS Augustus M. Kelley, Bookseller New York
First edition, in quarto, 1830 Subsequent editions in 8vo: Second 1850 Third 1854 Fourth 1858 Fifth 1803 Sixth 1872 Original edition 1939* Reprinted Ip6f by arrangement with Allen £sf Unzvin. The present edition contains an Appendix: "On certain terms which are peculiarly liable to be used ambiguously in Political Economy," published originally in Elements of Logic by Richard Whately (1830)
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 65-16Q91
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA by SENTRY PRESS, N E W YORK, N . Y.
10019
CONTENTS
POLITICAL ECONOMY DEFINED AS, T H E SCIENCE WHICH TREATS or THE NATURE, THE PRODUCTION, AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH,
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NATURE OF WEALTH. WEALTH defined, as comprehending all those things, and those things only, which are Transferable, Limited in Supply, and directly or indirectly productive of pleasure or preventive of pain, or, to use an equivalent expression, which are susceptible of Exchange, or, to use a third equivalent expression, which have Value, . . .
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Constituents of WEALTH :
1. Utility, . . . . . . . . 6 2. L i m i t a t i o n i n S u p p l y , . . . . . . 7 3 . Transferableness, . ' . . . . . . 8 Limitation in Supply the most important, . . . . 1 1 VALUE defined as, The quality in any thing which fits it to be given and received in Exchange, . . . . . . 1 3 The intrinsic causes of the Value of a commodity defined as, Those which give to it Utility and Limit it in Supply, . . . . 1 6 The extrinsic as, Those which Limit the Supply and occasion the Utility of the commodities for which it is to be exchanged, . . . 1 6 Steadiness in Value depends on the permanence of the intrinsic causes ofvalue, . . . . . . . . 20 Objections to the Definition of Wealth considered, . . . 2 2 STATEMENT OF THE FOUR ELEMENTARY PROPOSITIONS OF THE S C I E N C E : 1. That every man desires to obtain additional Wealth with as little sacrifice as possible. 2. Tliat the Population of the world, or, in other words, the number of persons inhabiting it, is limited only by moral and physical evil, or by fear of a deficiency of those articles of wealth which the habits of the individuals of each class of its inhabitants lead them to require. 3. That the Powers of Labour, and of the other Instruments which Produce Wealth, may be indefinitely increased by using their products as the means of further production. 4. That, agricultural skill remaining the same, additional Labour employed on the land within a given district produces in general a less proportionate return, or, in other words, that though, with every increase of the labour bestowed, the aggregate return is increased, the increase of the return is not in proportion to the increase of the l a b o u r , . . . . . . . .
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CONTENTS PA OS
Development of the First Elementary Proposition, namely, the General Desire of Wealth, . . . . .