Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics [Course Book ed.] 9781400862054

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ESSAYS ON THE INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF ECONOMICS

JACOB VINER

Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics

EDITED BY

Douglas A. Irwin

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Copyright © 1991 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Viner, Jacob, 1892-1970. Essays on the intellectual history of economics / Jacob Viner ; [compiled and] edited by Douglas A. Irwin. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-691-04266-7 (alk. paper) I. Economics—History. I. Irwin, Douglas A., 1962- . II. Title. HB75.V56 1991 330'.09—dc20 90-39761 CIP

This book has been composed in Times Roman Princeton University Press books aie printed on acid-free paper, and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 1 0

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments Introduction

PART I

1

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

3

The Wabash Lectures

Five Lectures on Economics and Freedom

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Early Attitudes toward Trade and the Merchant The Nation-State and Private Enterprise The Emergence of Free-Trade and Laissez-Faire Doctrine Monopoly and Laissez Faire The "Economic Man," or The Place of Economic Self-interest in a "Good Society" Editorial Appendix to the Wabash Lectures

39 45 54 63

PART II

2 3 4

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69 78

Major Essays

Adam Smith and Laissez Faire Marshall's Economics, in Relation to the Man and to His Times Power versus Plenty as Objectives of Foreign Policy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Bentham and J. S. Mill: The Utilitarian Background Introduction to Bernard Mandeville, A Letter to Dion (1732) "Fashion" in Economic Thought The Intellectual History of Laissez Faire The Economist in History Adam Smith Mercantilist Thought Man's Economic Status SatireandEconomicsintheAugustanAgeofSatire

85 114 128 154 176 189 200 226 248 262 277 303

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CONTENTS

PART III

14 15 16 17

Schumpeter's History of Economic Analysis Hayek on Freedom and Coercion "Possessive Individualism" as Original Sin The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill

PART IV

18 19

Review Articles

Commencement Addresses

A Modest Proposal for Some Stress on Scholarship in Graduate Training Address at the University of Toronto Convocation

Index

327 346 357 376

385 396 401

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SHORTLY AFTER Jacob Viner's death in 1970, a number of his friends and col­

leagues at Princeton sought to arrange publication of his principal essays on the history of economic thought. While this project apparently never advanced be­ yond early discussions, I was pleased to find that twenty years later interest among scholars in such a volume had not waned. In bringing together Viner's essays, I hope this collection serves as a lasting reminder of his scholarly con­ tributions to intellectual history. I particularly hope that this volume introduces those unfamiliar with his work to the range and learning in his writings. This collection also provides a propitious opportunity to publish the text of five lec­ tures Viner delivered in 1959 at a conference on "Economics and Freedom" at Wabash College. In the preparation of this material, I am grateful for helpful discussions with and comments from many individuals, especially William Baumol, Jagdish Bhagwati, R.D.C. Black, Donald Dewey, Craufurd Goodwin, Daniel Ham­ mond, and Jacques Melitz. I am particularly indebted to Arthur Bloomfield and Donald Winch for responding to my repeated requests for assistance. I also wish to thank Phillip Harth and Irwin Primer for providing the unpublished pages from Viner's introduction to Bernard Mandeville's A Letter to Dion. The essays are republished here as they originally appeared, and they therefore contain inconsistencies in spelling, note format, and bibliographic style. The fol­ lowing publishers and institutions kindly granted permission to reprint material of Viner's that they had originally published: the University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, the University of Toronto Press, Macmillan Publishing Company, Brown University, the Augustan Reprint Society, the American Economic Association, the Southern Economic Journal, and the Canadian Political Science Association. I thank the heirs of Jacob Viner (Arthur Viner and Ellen V. Seiler), the Princeton University libraries, the University of Toronto, and Wabash College for granting permission to publish or to quote from the unpublished papers of Jacob Viner. Finally, I am grateful to Peter Kenen, the Director of the International Finance Section at Princeton University, for helpful advice and for providing generous

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

financial assistance at an early stage of this project. Without the kind support of Ellen V. Seiler and the enthusiasm of Jack Repcheck, economics editor at Prince­ ton University Press, this project would not have been completed. Douglas A. Irwin Washington, D.C.

ESSAYS ON THE INTELLECTUAL HJSTORY OF ECONOMICS

INTRODUCTION

JACOB VINER ranks among the most distinguished economists and scholars of his generation.1 Lionel Robbins, himself a great scholar in the history of econom­ ics, believed that Jacob Viner "was probably the greatest authority of the age in the history of economic and social thought."2 Mark Blaug was less equivocal in judging Viner to be "quite simply the greatest historian of economic thought that ever lived."3 Anyone familiar with Viner, either personally or through his writ­ ings, respects these claims as eminently justifiable. Indeed, only Joseph Schumpeter challenges Viner's reputation as this century's master of the history of eco­ nomic thought. Unlike Schumpeter, however, Viner did not leave behind a single magnum opus to stand as an enduring monument to his scholarly work in the history of economic thought. Instead, Viner's vast contribution to the history of thought has remained scattered in books and articles published over a period of half a century. This book aims to redress this state of affairs by collecting Jacob Viner's essaylength contributions to the intellectual history of economics, along with selected, previously unpublished material, into a single volume. The very appearance of this book, twenty-one years after Viner's death, testifies to the continuing signif­ icance of his scholarship.4 1 See Fritz Machlup, "What the World Thought of Jacob Viner," Journal of Political Economy 80 (January-February 1972)· 1-4 2 "Other names may come to the mind with achievements of comparable excellence in limited fields. But over the wide range of relevant literature from the sixteenth century onwards, he had no equal." Lionel Robbins, Jacob Viner: A Tribute (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), pp. 6-7. 3 Mark Blaug, Great Economists since Keynes (New York. Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 256. Another recent assessment acclaims Viner's work in economic theory, "in addition to his perhaps even more distinguished work in the history of economics, where his accompiishmenCs were almost without rival." Henry W. Spiegel, "Jacob Viner," in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, eds. John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, and Peter Newman (New York: Stockton Press, 1987), 4:812. 4 By one crude measure, attention to Viner's work has not diminished in the years since his death. The average annual number of citations of Viner's publications, taken from the Social Science Cita­ tion Index, shows remarkable consistency: 46 from 1971 to 1975; 78 from 1976 to 1980, 45 from 1981 to 1985; 46 from 1986 to 1988. References to Viner's seminal contributions to the study of

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INTRODUCTION

This collection opens with the text of five lectures Viner delivered at a Wabash College conference on "Economics and Freedom" in 1959. These previously unpublished lectures present a broad overview of economic and philosophical doctrines relating to freedom and commerce, a prominent theme in Viner's his­ torical research.5 Twelve of Viner's essays on the history of economic thought follow the lectures. Originally published at various times from 1927 to 1970, the essays cover a wide range of topics and demonstrate the breadth and depth of Viner's scholarship. Four review articles lend insight into Viner's assessment of work on topics that touched on his interests. Finally, two of Viner's commence­ ment addresses on scholarship and learning, one previously unpublished, close out the volume. This introduction aims to provide some background to the writings of Jacob Viner presented in this book. Little discussion of the lectures and essays them­ selves is needed, for anything written by Viner speaks clearly for itself. However, a brief commentary to set the stage for the essays—pointing out their significance when it may have been obscured by time, for example, or recording any change in Viner's position that may have occurred after publication—may assist the reader in fully appreciating Viner's contribution. Before discussing the Wabash lectures and the other essays in this light, a cursory sketch of Viner's career is provided to acquaint those unfamiliar with his work to him, after which Viner's distinctive approach to scholarship and the history of ideas is examined.