Elements of Political Economy (3rd ed. 1844)
The superior exposition in this classic work goes far in explaining James Mill’s lasting appeal. Most often remembered as an expositor of David Ricardo and as the most unforgettable home-schooling parent of all time - through the eyes of his ultimately more famous son, John Stuart Mill, James Mill’s original work has much to offer. Consider the excellent summaries of diminishing marginal returns in Chapter II, of comparative advantage in Chapter III, Section V, of the quantity theory of money and the market for foreign exchange in Chapter III, Sections VII-XVI, and of the aggregate budget constraint and the relationship between bequests and tax burdens in Chapter IV. James Mill’s exposition of the labor theory of value is so compelling and simple that it stood for over a generation, to much unfortunate misapplication. It still represents a logic so apparently correct that students and laymen alike easily lapse into it.
Elements of Political Economy, 3rd edition revised and corrected (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1844).
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The text is in the public domain.
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- Author: James Mill
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Table of Contents
- CONTENTS
- Preface
- Introduction The Subject—Its Limits—and Division
- Chapter I: PRODUCTION
- Section I. Labour
- Section II. Capital
- Chapter II: DISTRIBUTION
- Section I. Rent
- Section II. Wages
- Section III. Profits
- Chapter III: INTERCHANGE
- Section I. Nature of the Advantage Derived from the Interchange of Commodities, and the Principal Agents Employed in it.
- Section II. What Determines the Quantity in Which Commodities Exchange for One Another
- Section III. Effect Upon Exchangeable Values of a Fluctuation in Wages and Profits.
- Section IV. Occasions on Which it is the Interest of Nations to Exchange Commodities with One Another
- Section V. The Commodities Imported are the Cause of the Benefits Derived from a Foreign Trade
- Section VI. Convenience of a Particular Commodity, as a Medium of Exchange
- Section VII. What Regulates the Value of Money
- Section VIII. What Regulates the Quantity of Money
- Section IX. The Effect of Employing Two Metals Both as Standard Money, and of Using Subsidiary Coins, at Less Than the Metallic Value.
- Section X. Substitutes for Money
- Section XI. Advantages Derived from the Use of Paper Money
- Section XII. Inconveniences to which the Use of Paper Money is Liable
- Section XIII. The Value of the Precious Metals in Each Country Determines Whether It Shall Export or Import
- Section XIV. The Value of the Precious Metal, or Medium of Exchange, Which Determines Exportation, Is Not the Same in All Countries
- Section XV. Mode in which the Precious Metal, or Medium of Exchange, Distributes Itself Among the Nations of the Globe
- Section XVI. Money Transactions between Nations—Bills of Exchange
- Section XVII. Bounties and Prohibitions
- Section XVIII. Colonies
- Chapter IV: CONSUMPTION
- Section I. Of Productive and Unproductive Consumption
- Section II. That Which Is Annually Produced Is Annually Consumed
- Section III. That Consumption Is Co-extensive with Production
- Section IV. In What Manner Government Consumes
- Section V. Taxes on Rent
- Section VI. A Tax on Profits
- Section VII. A Tax on Wages
- Section VIII. Direct Taxes Which Are Destined to Fall Equally Upon All Sources of Income
- Section IX. Taxes on Commodities; either Some Particular Commodities; or All Commodities Equally
- Section X. A Tax Upon the Produce of the Land
- Section XI. A Tax Upon the Profits of the Farmer, and Upon Agricultural Instruments
- Section XII. Tithes and Poor Rates
- Section XIII. A Tax per Acre on the Land
- Section XIV. Taxes Upon the Transfer of Property
- Section XV. Law Taxes
- Section XVI. Taxes on Money, and the Precious Metals
- Section XVII. Effects of the Taxation of Commodities Upon the Value of Money, and the Employment of Capital