The fertility of Adam Smith’s work stems from a paradoxical structure where the pursuit of economic self-interest and wealth accumulation serve wider social objectives. The incentive for this wealth accumulation comes from a desire for social recognition or "sympathy" – the need to recognise...

J.S. Mill is generally considered to be the theorist who gave birth to the concept of natural monopoly in its modern sense. Yet, no author has specified that Mill distinguishes two types of monopoly, the “natural monopoly” and the “practical monopoly”. I show that Mill's notion of...

Noting that it is Thornton, not Ricardo, who is the originator of the classical analysis of the gold points mechanism, this paper shows that Ricardo rejected this mechanism. This is done by considering his criticism of the causal link between deficits, the exchange rate and the price of gold....