PRICE ECONOMICS VERSUS WELFARE ECONOMICS.

This article attempts to trace the growth of the commercial conception of the economics from the time of Adam Smith to its apogee in J. S. Mill and to describe the contemporary opposition to it. Smith more easily could distinguish between monetary prices and national wealth because of his use of the word "price" in a broader sense than that which became prevalent among his followers and from the first he contrasted "the price of commodities" in labor and in money. David Ricardo's main work appeared in 1817 and it is no mere chance that the beginning of the great increase of popular interest in economics have been dated the following year. It was chiefly Ricardo who gave to the liberal economic doctrine, handed down from Adam Smith, both its appearance of theoretical completeness and its pronounced commercial character. Ricardian economics was in full vigor from 1818 until 1860. The ethical protest against price economics was led by Thomas Carlyle, who voiced his opinions with characteristic vigor in three successive groups of essays. Carlyle's fulminations on economic evils gave offense in some quarters but, uttered, as they were, when he was at the very height of his literary reputation, had doubtless a notable effect and many have had no small part in hastening various measures of parliamentary reform.