The discovery of the principle of comparative advantage was a complex process involving two generations of economists. This paper examines the contributions of Torrens, Ricardo, James Mill and John Stuart Mill. It argues that James Mill's Elements (1821) and not Ricardo's principles (1817) is...

Jenovian trade theory was the original species of neoclassical trade theory. It treats countries as trading bodies with utility functions for consumption and disutility functions for labour. Edgeworth derived offer curves from tastes and technology; Jevon's model resembles the modern specific...

In 1951 R. A. Fisher described what had been achieved in the 20th century so far: “we have learnt (i) To conserve in its statistical reduction the scientific information latent in any body of observations. (ii) To conduct experimental and observational inquiries so as to maximise the...