Abstract
The story of the development of economics as a systematic body of theoretical knowledge is routinely held to begin with Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776). The work of Ricardo, so the story goes, then constitutes the first significant intellectual advance on Smith; his Essay on Profits (1815) and Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) build upon Smithian foundations but develop a systematic theoretical core for economic theorising. Following a simplified linear account of the discipline, during the years from 1830 to 1870 it is thought that there is much work done that is of lasting interest; but only in the 1870s does a genuine theoretical shift take place with the so-called ‘Marginal Revolution’, leading on in Britain through the work of Jevons and Marshall to the elaboration of economics in its modern guise.
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Notes
See M.M. Augello et al. (eds.), Le cattedre di economia politico in Italia, Franco Angeli, Milan, 1988; N. Waszek (ed.), Die Institutionalisierung der Nationalokonomie an deutschen Universitäten, Scripta Mercaturae Verlag, St. Katherinen, 1988; W.J. Barber (ed.), Breaking the Academic Mould. Economists and American Higher Learning in the Nineteenth Century, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, 1988. These collections arose out of an international project on the institutionalisation of political economy jointly managed by the King’s College Cambridge Research Centre and the University of Florence from 1983-1986.
R. F. Teichgraeber, “‘Less abused than I had reason to expect’: the Reception of the Wealth of Nations in Britain, 1776–90”, Historical Journal 30 (1987), pp. 337–66.
E. Hughes, “Sir Charles Trevelyan and Civil Service Reform, 1853–5”, English Historical Review 64 (1949), p. 53.
“Report on the Organisation of the Permanent Civil Service”, Parliamentary Papers (P.P.), 1854, Vol. XXVII, p. 14.
In the same months that Jowett wrote to Trevelyan, Trevelyan wrote to Gladstone concerning his “Thoughts on Patronage”, which he described as “… the greatest abuse and scandal of the present age … It is proposed to invite the flower of our youth to the aid of the public-service; to encourage the rising generation to diligence and good conduct by a more extensive system of rewards than has ever been brought to bear upon popular education, and to make a nearer approach to disinterested political action by removing one prevailing temptation from Electors and Representatives.” (letter of 17 January 1854, cited in Hughes, “Sir Charles Trevelyan”, p. 70). As the more conservative critics of the report pointed out with justice, a conflict inhered in establishing scholastic qualification as the criterion for entry to an occupation which demanded no scholarly talents whatsoever. J.S. Mill, no conservative critic, recognised “… the fact that the great majority, numerically speaking, of public employments, can be adequately filled by a very moderate amount of ability and knowledge …” (Papers relating to the Reorganisation of the Civil Service, P.P., 1854–5, Vol. XX, p. 97); other respondents to Trevelyan’s orchestrated campaign noted that the introduction of highly-qualified recruits into the lower reaches of the Service would promote apathy and resignation among them when confronted with the routine nature of the work they were to perform (P.P., 1854–5, Vol. XX, pp. 101–2, 128,134, 315, 351,386).
Letter from Jowett to Trevelyan, January 1854, P.P. 1854, Vol. XXVII, p. 27. Jowett followed this remark with suggestions for the reorganisation of school education in which “Political Economy, Law and Moral Philosophy” formed the third of four groups (p. 28).
First Report of Her Majesty’s Civil Service Commissioners, P.P., 1856, Vol. XXII, Appendix I, Table B, p. 4. The qualifications for Ceylon Writerships also made mention of political economy, but this is simply a reflection of the continuation of the syllabus established at Haileybury.
First Report, Appendix I, Table B, p. 6. The Treasury added “1. Exercises designed to test Handwriting and Orthography. Good Handwriting to consist in the clear formation of the letters of the alphabet” (p. 6). The First Report also includes all the examination papers set under its jurisdiction, from which it can be judged what kind of abilities were being assessed. No questions in political economy were included until the Sixth Report in 1861, where they are included in the Irish Department (P.P., 1861, Vol. XIX).
W. J. Reader, Professional Men, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1966, p. 96.
M. Wiener’s English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981, devotes a mere four pages to the general issue of education and industry (pp. 132–5); as will be indicated below, the reform of the educational system and the foundation of the new colleges is in fact a product of a strong relation between provincial culture and * industrial spirit’ which runs counter to the literary evidence assembled by Wiener. The best outline of English educational provision at this time can be found in Ch. 3 of Sidney Pollard’s Britain’s Prime and Britain’s Decline, Edward Arnold, London, 1989, pp. 115–213. Pollard argues convincingly that, while British educational provision was more diffuse than that of our major competitors, its performance was broadly similar.
See for an outline of some of the issues involved M. Richter, The Politics of Conscience. TM. Green and His Age, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1964, and C. Harvie, The Lights of Liberalism, Allen Lane, London, 1976.
See for the general background to this J. Maloney, “The Rise of Economics Teaching at the University of London”, in I. Hont, K. Tribe (eds.), Trade, Politics and Letters, Routledge, London (forthcoming).
For an outline of the developments in the examination system for recruits to the Indian Civil Service post-Haileybury, and the elaboration of a system for the Home Civil Service, see J. Roach, Public Examinations in England, 1850–1900, Cambridge University Press, London, 1971, pp. 210–21.
T. Kelly, A History of Adult Education in Britain, 2nd. ed., Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 1970, p. 119.
Kelly, Adult Education, p. 120. The Mechanics’ Institution movement is import to an understanding of the development of British economics not because it was a major propagator of political economy to new audiences, but because it contributed to the establishment of a cultural and institutional basis for wider educational opportunity. This basis then, later in the century, formed the route through which political economy entered college and university syllabi. It is misleading to assume, as does for example Maxine Berg in her Machinery Question and the Making of Political Economy 1815–1848 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980, Ch. 7) that there was some kind of inevitable link between the demand for practical scientific education and the propagation of political economy as a’ science’.
See for example Alon Kadish, “University Extension and the Working Classes: the Case of the Northumberland Miners”, Historical Research 60 (1987), pp. 188–207.
T. Kelly, Outside the Walls. Sixty Years of University Extension at Manchester, 1886–1946, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1950, p. 6.
Welch, The Peripatetic University, Cambridge University Press, London, 1973, p. 48. The organisational committee at Derby was chaired by the local MP and mill-owner, its secretary was the head of the local grammar school, and the committee, which numbered thirty-eight, included seven clergymen and eight members of the town council.
At Derby the rate for morning lectures and classes was fixed at 10/6d. per term, while the fee for evening lectures and classes for artisans was 2/6d (Welch, Peripatetic University, p. 48). In London during the 1880s a fee of 5s. was usual for the evening lectures on political economy.
Kelly, Adult Education, p. 224. Quite what is meant by ‘political economy’ in this context naturally requires consideration, although as will be seen below in the case of London the level and content of teaching was ratified by leading contemporary political economists. The discussion of London which follows is intended primarily as an indication of the nature and context of extension teaching, and has itself to be supplemented by a treatment of the Cambridge extension movement, which is more directly relevant to the subsequent foundation of provincial colleges.
London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, Report of the Council (1877), ‘Table giving Particulars of Lectures and Classes held during the Winter of 1876–77”.
London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, Report of the Council (1878), pp. 5–6. Foxwell and J.N. Keynes commented in similar terms in their roles as examiners, implicitly emphasising the distance between the level of extension teaching and all previous non-university courses.
London Society for the Extension of University Teaching, Report of the Council (1886), p. 11.
Report from Armitage-Smith, 23 December 1886, Birkbeck, University of London Library Mss. EM2/23/3. J.N. Keynes remarked as examiner that the students had an “even and sound grasp of the subject”.
This division was acknowledged at the time, cf. R.G. Moulton, The University Extension Movement, Bemrose and Sons, London, 1887, p. 7.
A.C. Wood, A History of University College, Nottingham, 1881–1948, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1953, pp. 6–14.
Wood, History, p. 25. Lecturing on political economy was carried out by the Rev. J.E. Symes, Prof, of Language and Literature. The other chairs were in physics, mathematics and mechanics; chemistry and metallurgy; and natural sciences.
Day enrolments at Liverpool for example did not exceed 100 until the third session of 1883–84, of which over 50% were women; students enrolled term-by-term, subject-by-subject, each course carrying its own certificate. Students could sit for London matriculation or Cambridge Local Examinations; London Intermediate Arts or Science and Cambridge Higher Locals; or London BAs or BScs. T. Kelly, For Advancement of Learning: The University of Liverpool 1881–1981, University of Liverpool Press, Liverpool, 1981, pp. 56–8.
Wood, History, P. 31.
Kelly, Advancement, p. 74.
A.W. Chapman, The Story of a Modern University. A History of the University of Sheffield, Oxford University Press, London, 1955, p. 14.
Chapman, Story, p. 22.
S. Caine, The History of the Foundation of the London School of Economics and Political Science, G. Bell and Sons, London, 1963, pp. 40–44.
The 1898–99 session was composed of the following courses in economics: Year 1; Descriptive Economics, The Meaning and Use of Economic Terms, Outlines of English Economic History, Elementary Methods of Investigation, chiefly statistical. Years 2 and 3: History of Economic Theory, The Economic History of England in relation to that of Foreign Countries, Modern Currency Standards. W.A.S. Hewins, “The London School of Economics and Political Science”, Special Reports on Educational Subjects, P.P., 1898, Vol. XXIV, pp. 88–89.
E.W. Vincent, P. Hinton, The University of Birmingham: Its History and Significance, Cornish Bros., Birmingham, 1947, pp. 61–5.
B.M.D. Smith, “Education for Management: Its Conception and Implementation in the Faculty of Commerce at Birmingham”, Faculty of Commerce and Social Science, University of Birmingham, Occasional Paper No. 5 (1965), pp. 6–8.
W.J. Ashley, “The Universities and Business”, Minutes of Proceedings of the Staffordshire Iron and Steel Institute, Dudley, 4 April 1903, p. 161.
W.J. Ashley, The Faculty of Commerce in the University of Birmingham, n.p., Birmingham, 1902, p. 1.
See for a detailed discussion of these and related issues Alon Kadish, “The Foundation of the Birmingham Faculty of Commerce as a Statement on the Nature of Economics”, paper presented to the History of Economic Thought Conference, Manchester, 1987.
In the light of the argument that follows, it can be argued that the account of the development of the Moral Sciences in nineteenth-century Britain that we find in S. Collini, D. Winch, J. Burrow, That Noble Science of Politics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983 — a story culminating with Sidgwick and Marshall in Cambridge — provides an intellectual thread that leads us to the wrong point.
The Marshall Prize for ?15 to be spent on economics books; see for this and other details of Marshall’s activities in Cambridge Alon Kadish, Historians, Economists and Economic History, Routledge, London, 1989, chs. 5,6.
A. Marshall, A Plea for the Creation of a Curriculum in Economics and associated branches of Political Science, n.p., Cambridge, 1902, p. 4.
Marshall, Plea, p. 8.
Kadish, Historians, p. 233 and n. 53 p. 294.
Flux’s entry in the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (Macmillan, London, 1988) gives the reader to understand that his main contribution to economics is a review written in 1894 (entry by John Whitaker, Vol. 2, pp. 395–6). No mention is made of his work during the 1920s in the Board of Trade on the census of production and estimates of national income, for which he was knighted in 1936. Chapman was subsequently Permanent Secretary of the Board of Trade 1920–26, and then Chief Economic Advisor to the Government. There is no entry for him in the New Palgrave at all. This underscores my view that our present estimation of the pre-eminence of Cambridge and London in the development of British economics is more the outcome of our general ignorance of anything that happens elsewhere, rather than from any informed assessment of the relation of Cambridge and London to provincial institutions.
Economic Journal 20 (1910), p. 669.
Hence, despite the limited number of economics graduates (never more than two or three a year before 1914), a great proportion of them passed into teaching at Manchester.
See the account of F.A. Hayek, “The London School of Economics 1895–1945”, Economica n.s. 13 (1946), pp. 1–31.
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Tribe, K. (1990). Political Economy to Economics Via Commerce: The Evolution of British Academic Economics 1860–1920. In: Wagner, P., Wittrock, B., Whitley, R. (eds) Discourses on Society. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-29174-1_11
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