The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction
• Jeremy Bentham and James Mill
• Rationale of Judicial Evidence
• Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind
• Botanical Writings 1840–61
• Calendar of Odours April 1840
• Rare Plants In West Surrey June 1841
• Isatis Tinctoria June 1841
• Notes On Plants Growing In the Neighbourhood of Guildford, Surrey August 1841
• Cnicus Forsteri September 1841
• Additional Guildford Stations September 1841
• Polygonum Dumetorum November 1841
• Rarer Plants of the Isle of Wight November 1841
• Corrections and Additions In Mr. Mill’s List of Plants In the Isle of Wight January 1842
• The Phytologist; a Botanical Magazine December 1843
• Notes On the Species of Oenanthe February 1845
• Correction of an Error In the “notes On the Species of Oenanthe” April 1845
• Observations On Isatis Tinctoria and Other Plants May 1856
• Plants Growing Wild In the District of Luxford’s Reigate Florajune 1856
• Note On West Surrey Plants July 1856
• Reigate Plants October 1856
• Plants Growing On and Near Blackheath April 1857
• Late (early?) Flowering Plants: Plants In Flower In the District of Eltham and Chiselhurst, In November, 1857 January 1858
• Hutchinsia Petraea May 1858
• Leucojum Aestivum July 1858
• Clifton Plants July 1858
• Plants On Sherborn Sands, Blackheath, and Other Stations September 1858
• Some Derbyshire Plants September 1858
• Linaria Purpurea September 1858
• Faversham Plants October 1858
• Lepidium Ruderale April 1859
• Wallflower Growing On the Living Rock May 1860
• Spring Flowers of the South of Europe: Remarks On Some of the Spring Flowers of the South of Europe, and On Their Representatives In the British Isles October 1860
• Botany of Spain. a Few Days’ Botanizing In the North-eastern Provinces of Spain, In April and May, 1860 August 1861-february 1862
• Verbascum Thapsiforme October 1862
• Medical Reviews 1834, 1842
• Dr. King’s Lecture On the Study of Anatomy November 1834
• Carpenter’s Physiology January 1842
• Appendices
• Appendix A: Wills and Deed of Gift 1853-72
• Appendix B: the Vixen, and Circassia April 1837
• Appendix C: The Spanish Question July 1837
• Appendix D: Questions Before the Select Committee On Metropolitan Local Government 1867
• Appendix E: Mill At the Political Economy Club 1840-65
• Appendix F: Textual Emendations
• Appendix G: Index of Persons, and Works Cited, With Variants and Notes

Appendix E

Mill at the Political Economy Club

1840-65

Political Economy Club, VI (London: Macmillan, 1921), gives information about the history of the Club, with the topics proposed and the members present for the discussions. The following list gives the topics Mill proposed, with the dates of the meetings. He of course frequently attended discussions initiated by others.

1840

6 February

What would be the effect produced upon Wages, if the rich should adopt the practice of expending a large portion of their income on menial servants and retainers, and a smaller portion in the purchase of Commodities?

1841

4 March

What is the most convenient definition of the word Demand?

6 May

According to what principle is the benefit of the Trade between two nations shared between those two nations?

1842

2 June

To what extent has any country the power of making another independent country pay a portion of its Taxes?

1843

2 February

Is not the exportation of British Capital a cause, and almost a necessary condition, of its continued increase at home?

1 June

Is Political Economy a Science à priori, or what is commonly called a science of facts?

1844

5 December

Was Ricardo correct in stating that “the same rule which regulates the relative value of Commodities in one country, does not regulate the relative value of the Commodities exchanged between two or more countries”?¹

1845

3 April

Under what conditions, and to what extent, ought Governments to exercise a directing or regulating power over the operations of Private industry; and in connection with it?

1846

2 April

Is the Rent of Mines governed by similar principles with the Rent of Land?

7 May

What are the circumstances which regulate the Prices of the different kinds of Agricultural produce relatively to one another?

1847

1 April

What measures can be adopted to avert, as far as possible, the dangerous consequences of the Irish Poor Law proposed by the present Government?

2 December

Under what circumstances is it desirable to maintain a Surplus revenue for the purpose of paying off a National Debt?

1848

2 March

What are the essential differences between Bank Notes and other forms of credit?

4 May

Would it not be highly conducive to the economical and moral improvement of the Labouring Classes that the workmen should be, as far as possible, associated in the Profits of Industrial undertakings, and what means can be devised of giving a greater degree of extension to this principle?

1849

1 February

What is the most equitable mode of assessing an Income Tax?

6 December

What are the most desirable changes to be made in our system of Taxation?

1850

4 April

Does the progress of Wealth and Industry, under the present social institutions of Europe, tend to an increasing agglomeration of capital in large masses, or to the dispersion of such masses?

1851

6 February

Would not the most eligible mode of relieving the Handloom Weavers from their habitually depressed condition, be their formation into Home colonies, combining agriculture with their present employment?

3 July

Does a business in which the Returns are slow, employ with equal capital as much labour, and add as much to the produce of the country, as a business in which the Returns are quick?

1852

4 March

Is the purchase of commodities produced by Labour equivalent in its effect on Wages, and on the Labour market, to the Direct purchase of Labour?

2 December

What are the necessary conditions of a just Income Tax?

1853

3 February

Is Direct preferable to Indirect taxation?

5 May

Is the claim made on behalf of the Irish Tenantry to hold their farms in perpetuity at a rent fixed by valuation, admissible in any shape, or under any conditions?

1855

6 December

What are the nature and extent of the relief which the present generation obtains at the expense of posterity, by raising the supplies necessary for War expenditure, by means of Loans instead of by means of Taxation?

1856

3 April

Does the purchase of Commodities for Unproductive consumption contribute to the employment of Labour, in the same degree as the expenditure of an equal sum in direct payment of Wages to unproductive Labourers?

4 December

Is it incumbent on the Bank of England to restrict its discounts, on the Setting in of a Drain of Gold, without reference to the causes in which that Drain originates?

1857

7 May

By what laws are Retail Prices and Profits determined?

1858

3 June

Under what circumstances would a fall in the exchangeable value of Gold, as a consequence of the recent discoveries, justify any alteration in the Standard so as to affect existing Contracts?

1861

11 April

What is the value of Moral Education to Economical Improvement; and conversely, what are the bearings of Economical Prosperity on Moral Excellence?

1863

27 March

What is the best definition of Productive and Unproductive Labour, and of Productive and Unproductive Consumption?

3 July

Is the word Capital most properly used to designate certain kinds of Wealth, namely, Food, Implements, and Materials; or should it rather be applied to all Wealth, of whatever kind, which is, or is intended by its owner to be, applied to the purpose of Reproduction?

1865

7 July

Does the high rate of Interest in America and in new Colonies indicate a corresponding high rate of profits? and if so, What are the causes of that high rate?

[1 ]David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (London: Murray, 1817), p. 156.