The article deals with the relation between assumptions of economic theories and their political implications. Two canons of economic science are being analyzed according to the degree of abstraction. A hypothesis is that the more abstract formal canon is connected with a liberal kind of...

This paper forms part of a research project investigating conceptions of the relationship between micro-level self-seeking agent behaviour and the desirability or otherwise of the resulting macro-level social outcomes in the history of economics. I identify two kinds of conservative rhetorical...

Ricardo's model of capital accumulation is studied on the basis of his distinction between natural and accidental causes that are associated with permanent and temporary effects. The consequence is that, from the two contemporary interpretations of this model: theses of Hollander and Peach, only...

This paper reconsiders the anteriority of Torrens’ theory of natural wage to that of Ricardo. Ricardo was influenced by Torrens’ thinking when writing the chapter on ‘Wages’ of the Principles. For many historians of economic thought, this influence is limited to Torrens’ focus on the...

Italian Abstract: Per giustificare l’autorità e la validità della scienza economica, gli economisti sono spesso ricorsi all’argomento che le leggi e i postulati di questo sapere sono verità scientifiche, nel senso di verità empiriche, logiche o autoevidenti. Tuttavia, questo discorso, in...

This article attempts to lay out the central characteristics of Antonio Rosmini's (1797-1855) fiscal and tributary philosophy. Incorporating a multitude of elements from the doctrines of great economists such as Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, or Simonde de Sismondi and illuminating them with his...

Between J-B. Say and R. Malthus an important debate took place, witnessed by a number of letters and quotations, mainly concerning the débouchés problem. Quite surprisingly, the respective theories of values are never under discussion in their correspondence, nor quotations on them can be...

John Elliott Cairnes (1823-1875) is best known for his defense of the wages fund doctrine after Mill’s abandonment of it. This essay argues that Cairnes’ ideas represented a substantive advance in classical political economy, in that his ideas were more coherent than those of his...

This paper proposes a reconstruction of one of Torrens little unknown piece of work on the making and the distribution of income among the social classes. The framework assumes a single-good economy with fixed production coefficients. It differs from the contemporary Ricardo theory (that...