Elements of Political Economy

James Mill's (1773-1836) major contribution to economic theory, in the publisher's maroon cloth.

Mill, with his associates David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and Robert Torrens, founded The Political Economy Club in 1821 as a forum to discuss economic policy and peer-review their work. Elements, first published the same year, was intended as a 'school-book of Political Economy, to detach the essenital principles of the science from all extraneous topics, to state the propositions clearly and in their logical order, and to subjoin its demonstration to each' (Preface).

Treating economics as a science, its scope was limited to ascertaining 'the laws, according to which the production and consumption are regulated of those commodities, which the intervention of human labour is necessary to procure' (Introduction).

Mill's 'economic theory is in the main a distillation of the free market, anti-mercantilist views of Adam Smith and Ricardo, among others' (ODNB).

Third edition, revised and corrected; 8vo (23 x 14.5 cm); publisher's blind-stamped maroon cloth, spine lettered in gilt, later colour restoration, rubbed with slight loss with areas of repair; viii, 304pp.

Goldsmiths 24799.