The Macroeconomic thought of Nicholas Barbon

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-116
Author(s):  
James H. Ullmer
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Major Defect

Nicholas Barbon (1640–1698) is little appreciated by most historians of economic thought. He is sporadically mentioned in a few writings—probably the most well-known being the favorable reference to him made by John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) in The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (Keynes 1936, p. 359). The fullest treatment of Barbon's economic ideas is contained in The Origin of Scientific Economics: English Economic Thought 1660–1776 by William Louis Letwin (Letwin 1963, pp. 48–75). Letwin considers a major defect of Barbon's first purely scientific inquiry into economics, A Discourse of Trade (Barbon 1690), and by implication, his other economic writings, to be “the logical incoherence of its parts” (Letwin 1963, p. 57). This criticism is not surprising in light of the pre-paradigm period in which Barbon was writing.

scholarly journals W. Stark, J.M. Keynes and the Mercantilists

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantinos Repapis
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
History Of

In this paper we investigate Werner Stark’s sociology of knowledge approach in the history of economic thought. This paper explores: 1) The strengths and weaknesses of Stark’s approach to historiography, 2) seeing how this can frame an understanding of mercantilist writings and, 3) develop a link between a pluralist understanding of economics, and the sociology of knowledge approach. The reason for developing this link is to extend the sociology of knowledge approach to encompass a pluralist understanding of economic theorising and, at the same time, clarify the link between context and economic theory. John Maynard Keynes’ practice of building narratives of intellectual traditions as evidenced in The General Theory is used to develop a position between an understanding of history of economic thought as the evolution of abstract and de-contextualized economic theorising and, the view of economic theory as only relevant within the social conditions from which it arose.

scholarly journals The Return of National Self-Sufficiency? Excavating Autarkic Thought in a De-Globalizing Era

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Helleiner
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
National Economic ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Rich History

Abstract As the global crisis triggered by the COVID-19 virus unfolded, The Economist magazine published a cover in May 2020 titled “Goodbye globalization: the dangerous lure of self-sufficiency.” The title summed up well the new political interest in the ideology of national economic self-sufficiency in the pandemic context. Unfortunately, contemporary textbooks in the field of international political economy (IPE) say little about this kind of “autarkic” thought. No survey of the history of autarkic thought exists even within specialist IPE literature or in the fields of intellectual history and the history of economic thought. Filling this gap in existing scholarship, this article highlights a rich history of autarkic thought that includes the ideas of famous thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Fichte, Mohandas Gandhi, and John Maynard Keynes. Three core rationales for a high degree of national self-sufficiency have been advanced in the past: (1) insulation from foreign economic influence, (2) insulation from foreign political and/or cultural influence, and (3) the promotion of international peace. At the same time, considerable disagreements have existed among autarkists about some of these rationales and their relative importance, as well as about the precise meaning of national self-sufficiency. These disagreements stemmed not just from differences in their specific goals but also from the different conditions across time and space in which autarkic thought was developed. In addition to improving understanding of the autarkic ideological tradition, this article contributes to emerging scholarship attempting to overcome Western-centrism in IPE scholarship as well as literature exploring the new politics of de-globalization in the current era.

John Maynard Keynes

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Government Expenditures ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
Modern Economy ◽  
The Government

This chapter examines the economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes. According to Keynes, the modern economy does not necessarily find its equilibrium at full employment; it can find it with unemployment. This is the underemployment equilibrium, in which Say's Law no longer holds; there can be a shortage of demand. The government can and should take steps to overcome this shortage. The chapter discusses in more detail the underemployment equilibrium, the repeal of Say's Law, the call for government spending uncovered by revenues to sustain demand—all of which made up the so-called the Keynesian Revolution. In particular, it considers Keynes's central prescription that there should be government expenditures financed by borrowing to sustain demand and employment. It also analyzes Keynes's criticism of Winston Churchill, his A Treatise on Money (1930), and the economic discussion that followed the publication of The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money (1936).

‘No One in Our Age was Cleverer …’

2019 ◽  
pp. 99-136
Author(s):  
Alan Bollard
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
General Theory ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Imf

As troops massed on the border, John Maynard Keynes had to hastily cut short a holiday in France. A government advisor, academic, journalist, and polymath, he spent the next few years working on pioneering and highly innovative economic ideas: how to pay for the war, how to apply his ground-breaking ‘General Theory’ to policy, how to avoid repeating the mistakes of Versailles, and how to set up an international clearing exchange at Bretton Woods that would eventually become the IMF. As Germany turned on the Soviet Union, Keynes became very worried about his Russian in-laws caught up in the terrible siege of Leningrad.

The Pragmatic Basis of Keynes's Political Economy

1946 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dudley Dillard
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Widespread Adoption ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World

Although we still live in the shadow of the years between the First and the Second World Wars, already it seems quite clear that future historians of economic thought will regard John Maynard Keynes as the outstanding economist of this turbulent period. As one writer has recently said, “The rapid and widespread adoption of the Keynesian theory by contemporary economists, particularly by those who at first were highly critical, will probably be recorded in the future history of economic thought as an extraordinary happening.” Book after book by leading economists acknowledges a heavy debt to the stimulating thought of Lord Keynes. The younger generation of economists, especially those whose thinking matured during the great depression of the thirties, have been particularly influenced by him.

How, and for How Long, Did Keynes maintain theTreatiseTheory?

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-307
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Hirai
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
General Theory ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Monetary Reform ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Primary Material ◽  
Intellectual Journey

Many historians of economic theory have studied how John Maynard Keynes developed his theory fromA Tract on Monetary ReformthroughA Treatise on Money(hereafter theTreatise) toThe General TheoryofEmployment, Interest and Money(hereafter theGeneral TheoryorGT). After the pioneering studies by Moggridge (1973) and Patinkin (1976, 1982), there followed Dimand (1988), Amdeo (1989), Clarke (1988, 1998), Meltzer (1988), Moggridge (1992), Skidelsky (1992), Laidler (1999), and others. This is no wonder, for the Keynesian Revolution remains the most singular phenomenon that economic theory and policy have ever seen. Although the objective of our entire project has been to shed new light on this important and interesting phenomenon, examining and analyzing the processes of theory-building and rebuilding which constitute Keynes's intellectual journey (see Hirai 1997–99), the present paper focuses solely on one chapter in the long story of the transition through his three major works. The very fact of addressing the questions, “How did Keynes maintain the theory developed in theTreatiseafter its publication (October 1930), and for how long?” narrows the period under study to approximately two years which span roughly from October 1930 through October 1932. Our scrutiny will range over the original texts and primary material such as manuscripts, lecture notes, and correspondence produced over this period, and our findings will rest on the meticulous analysis of material of crucial importance for a clear understanding of Keynes's theoretical situation. We will also offer our comments on the earlier efforts insofar as they relate to the period in question.

Keynes' Antagonist: Correspondence between Alvin Hansen and Dennis Holme Robertson

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Higgins ◽  
J. W. Wright
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Evidence

Sir Dennis Holme Robertson's work provides a major contribution to the study of industrial fluctuation in the economy. An early collaborator with John M. Keynes, Robertson later became a major antagonist of the General Theory. In addition, new evidence from recently found documents indicates that Robertson not only criticized Keynes' work, but also that of his supporters, especially Alvin Hansen. This study provides an analysis, within the history of macro economic thought, of the importance of Robertson and Hansen's correspondence.

A General Theory for Our Times: On Piketty

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Mann
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty has offered, and many have desperately snatched at, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of our epoch. Piketty’s affinity with John Maynard Keynes and his groundbreaking 1936 landmark is largely unreflexive. But the ties that bind him to Keynes are powerful, and manifest themselves at many levels in Capital in the Twenty-First Century. The epistemology, the political stance, the methodological commitments, and the politics resonate in imperfect but remarkable harmony. This is no accident, because the world in which Piketty’s book appeared is saturated with the specifically capitalist form of anxiety that Keynes sought to diagnose, and fix, the last time it made the richest economies in the world tremble.

The Genesis of the Only Diagram in the General Theory

1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rod O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Final Version ◽  
Orthodox Theory ◽  
Reasonable Inference

It is well known that the General Theory contains only one diagram, this occurring in chapter 14 criticising the orthodox theory of the rate of interest. Attached to the diagram is a footnote containing an acknowledgement: “This diagram was suggested to me by Mr. R.F. Harrod” (CW VII, p. 180). The impression conveyed by this remark is that Harrod drew the diagram and offered it to Keynes, who then accepted and used it. Further enquiry into the diagram's origins reveals the existence of an initial version which grew out of correspondence between Keynes and Harrod in August-September 1935 (CW XIII, pp. 526-63). Two of Harrod's writings–his (1951) Keynes biography and a letter to Hawtrey in 1951–imply that he was the author of the initial version, and that this was essentially the same as the published version. And, in seeming corroboration of Harrod's comments, there is the virtual equivalence of the initial version given in The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes (CW XIII, p. 557) and the final version printed in the General Theory (CW VII, p. 180J. Taken individually and collectively, these items of evidence all point in the same direction. They support the reasonable inference that, apart from trivial changes in lettering, Harrod was the sole author and creator of the initial and final versions of the diagram, and that Keynes was merely the recipient.

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