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One of the several claims that Seligman makes for Rooke is that he should be accorded priority in the discovery of the correct, that is Ricardian, doctrine of rent:there seems little doubt that the doctrine of rent was developed practically simultaneously by Malthus, West, Torrens and Rooke in 1814, but so far as the priority of actual publication is concerned, the above list should be reversed. And in the interests of historical accuracy, Rooke and Torrens must hereafter be accorded the position which they deserve. (Seligman, 1903, p. 512)¹

This article makes a comparative analysis of works of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Piero Sraffa, notably Philosophical Investigations and Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities respectively. In the process, the authors' method and its underlying philosophical assumptions are criticised. While Sraffa's text is taken to represent a view of society that fits in nicely with Wittgenstein's conception of the structure of language games, it is also implied that Sraffa's thinking about economic relations might very well have inspired the development of Wittgenstein's philosophy. The article argues that their common methodological effort must be considered distinctively bourgeois.

These two books reflect very different attitudes to classical economics: O'Brien writes from a neoclassical standpoint, Napoleoni from a Marxist one. Two questions deserve consideration. Is anything worthwhile to be gained by devoting attention to the works of the classical economists (and of Marx)? Where, if we do turn to the classics, do they lead us?

The 40-letter correspondence concerning the French translation of The General Theory, between John Maynard Keynes and his translator, Jean de Largentaye, is a testimony of their close collaboration, which also involved Piero Sraffa in 1938 and 1939. Largentaye’s lexicon appears at the end of the French edition, providing definitions in French of technical terms used by Keynes. After its publication by Payot in 1942, the French edition of The General Theory was well received in France and no doubt contributed to the economic and social successes of the country in the subsequent 25 years.

Capital theory has taken a new turn with the theoretical discovery that wage curves tend to get linear in random systems, the larger they are, and with the confirmation that empirical wage curves do not deviate a great deal from linearity. The present chapter adds to these results by arguing that reswitching becomes less likely for larger systems, while Wicksell effects are almost surely present. But it can also be shown that the elasticity of substitution is likely to be small in random systems so that a policy to lower real wages will not easily generate much additional employment in a closed economy. A new perspective on employment policies is therefore called for.

Joseph Dorfman in his introduction to the 1966 edition of Ravenstone's A Few Doubts on the Subjects of Population and Political Economy argued that Ravenstone was Rev. Edward Edwards, a major contributor on political economy to the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine. The case Dorfman made was circumstantial but nonetheless a strong one. First there was the fact that ‘articles in these Tory organs [were] roughly speaking in accordance with the views of “Ravenstone”’ (Dorfman, 1966). Both Ravenstone and Edwards were, for example, strongly critical of Malthusian population theory and its implications. Furthermore, on the basis of a reading of the 1821 work, Dorfman opined that Ravenstone was a trained theologian, something consistent with Edwards' clerical status, and that both had a predilection for historical reflection. Dorfman also believed he had found evidence in the files of John Murray, the publisher of the Quarterly Review, to substantiate his identification. Thus he cites a letter from Murray to William Gifford, a member of the publishing house, dated 3 November 1820, which makes reference to a manuscript sent to Murray shortly before A Few Doubts was published by another house. Moreover, Murray's correspondence files show that Edwards thought highly of Henry Brougham, and there is a copy of A Few Doubts in the Goldsmiths' Library in London, which is inscribed from the author to him (Dorfman, 1966, p. 20).

After the end of the Napoleonic War, few issues of public policy dominated discussions in England as fervently as the issue of currency and the national debt. A time of civil unrest and social radicalisation, the circulation of ideas and pamphlets was prolific. The difficulties of post-war reconstruction sparked a long debate on issues of monetary reform and repayment of the national debt. The growth of national debt increased the size of the financial market and had important consequences for a changing class dynamic in domestic political affairs. The distributional aspects of the conflict were present, as was the satirical mockery of mishandling of public affairs. In much of the subsequent scholarship the organisation of taxation and expenditure, and the financial system and the issue of currency have been analysed as separate. This chapter brings them together. In particular, it focuses on Ricardo’s monetary thought and his views on public finance and contextualises them in light of his contemporaries.

The Sraffian system of production does not deal with a wide range of economic terms; growth is among those concepts. In this paper, the economic idea of growth will be examined with respect to the Sraffian approach. The growth concept will be tested by considering technological change, and decision‐making policy. Both ideas will be explored via the use of computer programs.

Considers the contribution of Attilio da Empoli to the theory of value and distribution and especially his contribution to the theory of monopolistic competition. During the 1920s a lively discussion developed about the link between the cost structure of the individual firm and the degree of competition in the wake of the demise of the Marshallian concept of the “representative firm”. In this context, Attilio da Empoli contributed two monographs with the declared intent to provide a new theory of value. While falling short of this ambitious objective, shows that Attilio da Empoli formulated a number of original insights that were fully developed only many years later. The two most important of these concern the contestability of markets (“external competition”) and the inadequacy of the Cournot solution for spatially differentiated firms that compete with otherwise identical products.