HISTOIRE DE KEYNE BRITISH

« He was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics.

Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford.

Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy.

Smith returned home and spent the ten years writing The Wealth of Nations , publishing it in 1776.

He became famous for this book, which had a profound influence on modern economics and concepts of individual freedom.

Smith is widely cited as the father of modern economics and capitalism.

He is most often recognized for the expression « the invisible hand ». John Stuart Mill (1806 –1873) John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher , economist and also a Member of Parliament .

His conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control.

He was a proponent of utilitarianism (an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham ).

Mill's famous formulation of utilitarianism is known as the "greatest-happiness principle".

It holds that one must always act so as to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people, within reason. Mill explains that people should have the right to have a say in the government’s decisions.

He said that social liberty was “the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual”. David Ricardo (1772 – 1823) David Ricardo was an English political economist .

He was also a member of Parliament , businessman, financier and speculator .

His most important contribution was the law of comparative advantage , an argument in favour of free trade among countries and of specialisation among individuals.

According to Ricardo's theory, even if a country could produce everything more efficiently than another country, it would gain from specialising in what it was best at producing and trading with other nations.

Ricardo believed that in the long run, prices reflect the cost of production , and referred to this long run price as a Natural price . He demonstrates that prices do not correspond to this value.

The theory of value explains that the relative price of two goods is determined by the ratio of the quantities of labour required in their production. William Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) He was an English economist and mathematician.

He is considered as the father of the neoclassical school (the neoclassical approach is based on the introduction of mathematics in the economy) and also as the father of the Marginal Revolution in economics with Walras and Menger.

This revolution is based on main economic concepts like the marginal utility. He debated with John Stuart Mill about the social welfare.

He wrote The Coal Question/ A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy SUMMARY Chapter 1 : Remains To Be Seen. »