Principles of Political Economy

'undisputed bible of economic doctrine'

A pleasing example of the third, substantively revised edition of J.S. Mill's (1806-1873) authoritative treatise on political economy which 'laid the foundations of the "philosophic radicalism" [that] became the gospel of liberal politicians in the mid-nineteenth century' (PMM). Ranked as the 'undisputed bible of economic doctrine' until the publication of Alfred Marshall's Principles in 1890 (Roll).

Many important changes took place between the publication of the first edition in 1848, and the appearance of the third in 1852, with the chapter on the 'Futurity of the Labouring Classes' being almost entirely rewritten to stress Mill's support of co-operative partnership, common ownership of landed property, and the evils of the 'division of the human race into two hereditary classes, employers and employed' (Book IV, p.332).

The edition also developed the parallel hinted at by Mill three years earlier between the servitude of workers under capitalist production, and the enforced dependence of women upon men: 'The ideas and institutions by which the accident of sex is made the groundwork of an inequality of legal rights, and a forced dissimilarity of social functions, must ere long be recognised as the greatest hindrance to moral, social, and even intellectual improvement' (Book IV, p331). Mill was an early advocate for suffrage reform; as MP for Westminster he became one of the strongest voices in Parliament calling for women to be given the right to vote, and on his death left a legacy of £6000, nearly half of his estate, to the furtherance of women's education.

Third edition; 2 vols; 8vo (23 x 15 cm); publisher's ads to rear of each vol., title a little creased, otherwise internally crisp and clean; publisher's blind-ruled blue-green cloth, original paper labels to spine, edges rough trimmed, spine a little faded, minor wear, very good; xx, 604, 8[ads]; xv, [1], 571, [1], 4[ads]pp.

cf.PMM 345.