GERRIT GORTER
The present study of economics did not, of course, come out of thin air. Although thinkers in classical Greece already reflected on what we now call economics, it was largely in the eighteenth century that systematic thought on the subject began.
Two conceptual tools—the economic cycle and the idea of the invisible hand—date from that century and are still in use today, both in academic research and in education.
This site contains twenty-five portraits of important economists. Each offers a biographical sketch together with an indication of his (and, in one case, her) significance for the development of economic thought. They claim no more than to provide a first introduction to the lives and works of these pioneers.
These articles originally appeared in Dutch in the Tijdschrift voor het Economisch Onderwijs and were published on the website of Gerrit Gorter. The English translations are by Folkert Gorter.
Index
François Quesnay
Adam Smith
Thomas Robert Malthus
Jean-Baptiste Say
David Ricardo
Antoine Augustin Cournot
John Stuart Mill
Karl Marx
Walras
Carl Menger
Alfred Marshall
Vilfredo Pareto Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
Knut Wicksell
Max Weber
Irving Fisher
Sam de Wolff
John Maynard Keynes
Joseph Alois Schumpeter
Joan Robinson
Jan Tinbergen
John Hicks
John Kenneth Galbraith
Milton Friedman
Paul Samuelson
Alfred Marshall
England 1842–1924
Alfred Marshall (1842–1924) received a strict upbringing. His authoritarian father, a cashier at the Bank of England, demanded the utmost from his son when it came to schoolwork, while hobbies such as mathematics and chess were forbidden. Since Alfred’s father could not afford a university education, a wealthy uncle stepped in. At Cambridge, Marshall studied philosophy and mathematics.
A friend advised him to take an interest in economics, which led him to the leading textbook of the time: Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill. He “was much excited about it,” as he later wrote. A second reason for turning to the study of economics was his encounter with the impoverished conditions in the major English industrial cities of the time.
In 1877, he married Mary Paley, an economist, with whom he co-authored The Economics of Industry. Marshall spent several years at the University of Bristol, where he taught evening classes to young businessmen. According to his biographers, it was here that he developed his ability to explain complex issues in a clear and accessible manner. After a few years, the Marshalls returned to Cambridge in 1884 — and never left again.
Marshall was not particularly pleased with the first edition of his most famous work, Principles of Economics (1890). He had it withdrawn from circulation, making it a fairly rare book — only about 150 copies remained in circulation — that would later fetch astronomical sums on the antiquarian market. Marshall devoted a great deal of time to continually revising the book. During his lifetime, a total of nine editions appeared — the second as early as 1891, and the last in 1920.
The most visible influence of Marshall on modern economic methods is the so-called “Marshallian Cross” — the well-known graph in which the demand and supply curves jointly determine the equilibrium price and quantity. It represents a neat synthesis between the classical view and that of the “utility” economists, of whom Carl Menger was a leading figure.
The curious thing about this graph, incidentally, is that the independent variable — price — is placed on the vertical axis, while the dependent variables — quantity demanded and quantity supplied — appear on the horizontal. Economics teachers have to explain time and again that things work differently in economics than in mathematics. Still, Marshall was not mistaken. He genuinely meant that price changes result from changes in the quantities demanded and/or supplied. In his view, buyers are willing to pay less as quantities increase, and sellers can only bring larger quantities to market at a higher price. These days, we do tend to treat price as the independent variable — but Marshall’s graph remains firmly entrenched in the textbooks.
Marshall was a careful writer who never rushed things. To illustrate this: the so-called subjectivist revolution of around 1870 is usually associated with the names of Menger, Walras, and Jevons. But according to information from his students, Marshall had been thinking along the same lines at a very early stage — perhaps also already around 1870. He simply felt his ideas were not yet mature enough to publish.
Marshall’s influence was considerable. Not only was his Principles the dominant textbook for many years, he also taught many famous students — including Joan Robinson and John Maynard Keynes. The fact that Marshall’s work was so quickly accepted in England may have had something to do with his sense of tradition. “It’s all in Ricardo,” he said of his own work, to show that he was by no means a revolutionary. Since then, the phrase has become: “It’s all in Marshall.”