This paper first considers the character of Smith's account of division of labour as a theory of technical progress. In so far as Smith's account does entail a vision of liberal or competitive commercial society as exhibiting ongoing technical progress, this must have implications for income...

Among other innovative and important contributions to the formation of political economy, William Petty is the originator of the concept of an economic or social surplus, a vital element in the formation of classical economics. It therefore is a natural and intriguing question, how Petty came to...

The treatment of functional income distribution in classical economics has commonly been interpreted in terms of a tripartite distinction between the roles of, and the returns to, labour, capital and land, with the classical income distribution theories explaining the determination of rates of...