Miscellaneous Notes on Economic Theory

Abstract

This Part reproduces various notes or fragments which are of interest either intrinsically, or for the light they throw on Marshall’s thinking and its development. The notes fall into three groups and are presented in sections with the following headings (see the Table of Contents for a detailed listing):

• IV.2 Notes on other economists, c. 1868–81

• IV.3 Pages from a mathematical notebook, c. 1867–72

• IV.4 Miscellaneous notes on economic theory, c. 1873–87

• IV.5 Fragments for the Principles

Datings are approximate. The notes in Sections IV.2 and IV.3 have, to a considerable extent, the role of appendixes to Sections I.2 and II, whilst IV.5 is essentially an appendix to Section I.6. The notes in IV.4 have, however, considerable independent interest, as they show Marshall pioneering in hitherto unexpected areas in the process of dealing with questions of indirect taxation, economic growth and social welfare. We also find him developing original results on marginal-productivity theory.