SMITH, MARX, & AFTER
SMITH, MARX, & AFTER Ten Essays in the Development of Economic Thought Ronald L. Meek Tyler Professor of Economics at the University of Leicester SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA. B.V.
1977 Ronald L. Meek Originally published by Chapman and Hall Ltd in 1977 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1977 ISBN 978-0-470-99161-9 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Meek, Ronald L Smith, Marx, and after. "A Halstead Press book." Includes index. I. Economics-History-Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Smith, Adam, 1723-90---Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Marxian economics-addresses, essays, lectures. I. Title. HB75.M42 1977 3JO'. 09 77-5345' ISBN 978-0-470-99161-9 ISBN 978-1-4899-7303-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-7303-0
To the Memory of Maurice Dobb
CONTENTS Preface ix PART ONE SMITH Smith and Marx Smith, Turgot, and the 'Four Stages' Theory 18 The Development of Adam Smith's Ideas on the Division of Labour 33 New Light on Adam Smith's Glasgow Lectures on Jurisprudence 57 PART TWO MARX A Plain Person's Guide to the Transformation Problem 95 From Values to Prices: Was Marx's Journey Really Necessary? 120 The 'Historical' Transformation Problem 134 PART THREE AFTER Value in the History of Economic Thought 149 Marginal ism and Marxism I 65 The Rise and Fall of the Concept of the Economic Machine 176 Index 189
PREFACE With one exception, all the essays in this collection have been written during the last seven or eight years. Two of them (Smith and Marx and A Plain Person's Guide to the Transformation Problem) are essentially new; the others have already been published in one form or another, in most instances in academic journals. In the case of the majority of the items which have already been published I have made various amendments, partly in order to IlJ.inimize the amount of repetition, and partly in order to bring the views expressed into conformity with those which I now hold. The exception is the final essay, which consists of the inaugural lecture I gave at Leicester University in 1964. Inaugural lectures, generally speaking, should be heard and not seen; but I felt on re-reading it that it might serve quite usefully as the final item in this collection. I have omitted two or three passages of largely local interest, but otherwise have left the text unaltered: if one foists a thirteen-year-old inaugural lecture on one's readers, I do not think one should cheat by excising any defects which time may since have revealed. If it is found to be good for nothing else, it can be studied as a typical example of the genre-erudite literary references, self-depredatory comments, comical jests for the groundlings, and all. The book as a whole is, I hope, a little larger than the sum of its parts, in the sense that the essays, although written at different times and for different purposes, have been put together in a way which is designed to emphasize the relationship between their themes. In Part One, I am concerned in particular with the work of Adam Smith, with which in a very real sense both Marxian and modern economics began. In Part Two, the main theme is Marx's theory of value and distribution, with particular reference to the so-called 'transformation problem' around which so many of the modern debates are centred. In Part Three, I turn to modern economics, discussing some of jts links with the past and prospects for the future. I am greatly obliged to the editors of the Economic Journal and History of Political Economy, to Cambridge University Press, and to Leicester University Press, for allowing me to reproduce material published by them. I am also greatly obliged to Andrew Skinner for giving me permission to reprint, in a volume published under my name alone, an article (The Development of Adam Smith's Ideas on the Division of Labour) which was in fact written jointly by the two of us. R.L.M.