History of Economic Doctrines

After the successful publication of Gide’s Principles of Political Economy, of which there are several translations, he collaborated with Professor Rist to give us this work.

The chief interest of the present volume will probably he found to consist in the attempt made to give us something like n true perspective of certain modem theories by connecting them with their historical antecedents; and we can imagine its later pages being scanned with a great dent of justifiable curiosity. Alter all, the verdict of history upon the achievements of Smith, the measure of his indebtedness to his immediate predecessors, and the extent to which the “car of economic progress” was accelerated or retarded in its movements at the hands of Ricardo and his contemporaries is fairly well established by tin’s time. On one point only do the present writers seem to challenge that verdict, namely, in their designation of Ricardo and Malthus as Pessimists.

CONTENTS
BOOK I : THE FOUNDERS
CHAPTER I : THE PHYSIOCRATS (M. Gide)
1.
I. The Natural Order
II. The Net Product
III. The Circulation of Wealth
2.
I. Trade
II. The Functions of the State
III. Taxation
IV. Resume of the Physiocratic Doctrine. Critics and Dissenters

CHAPTER II : ADAM SMITH (M. Rist)
I. Division or Labour
II. The “Naturalism” and “Optimism”” of Smith
III. Economic Liberty and International Trade
IV. The Influence or Smith’s Thought and its Diffusion. J. B. Ray

CHAPTER III : THE PESSIMISTS (M. Gide.)
I. Malthus
The Law of Population

II. RICARDO
1. The Law of Rent
2. Of Wages and Profits
3. The Balance of Trade Theory and the Quantity Theory of Money
4. Paper Money, its Issue and Regulation

BOOK II : THE ANTAGONISTS
Chapter I : SISMONDI AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CRITICAL SCHOOL (M. Rist)
I. The Aim and Method of Political Economy
II. Sismondi’s Criticism of Over-production and Competition
III. The Divorce of Land from Labour as the Cause of Pauperism and of Crises
IV. Sismondl’s Reform Projects, his influence upon the history of Doctrines

CHAPTER II : SAINT-SIMON, THE SAINT-SIMONIANS,
AND THE BEGINNINGS OF COLLECTIVISM (M. Rist)
I. Saint-Simon and Industrialism
II. The Saint-Simonians and their Criticism of Private Property
III. The Importance of Saint-Simonism in the History of Doctrines

CHATTER III : THE ASSOCIATIVE SOCIALISTS
I. Robert Owen (M. Gide.)
1. The Creation of the Milieu
2. The Abolition of Profit
II. Charles Fourier (M. Gide)
1. The Phalansterre
2. Integral Co-operation
3. Back to the Land
4. Attractive Labour
III. Louis Blanc (M. Rist)

CHAPTER IV : FRIEDRICH LIST AND THE NATIONAL SYSTEM OF POLITICAL ECONOMY (M. Rist)
I. List’s Ideas in relation to the Economic Conditions in Germany
II. Sources of List’s Inspiration. His Influence upon subsequent Protectionist Doctrines
III. List’s Real Originality

CHAPTER V: PROUDHON AND THE SOCIALISM OF 1848 (M. Rist)
I. Criticism of Private Property and Socialism
II. The Revolution of 1848 and the Discredit of Socialism
III. The Exchange Bank Theory
IV. Proudhon’s Influence after 1848

BOOK III: LIBERALISM
CHAPTER I: THE OPTIMISTS (M. Gide)
I. The Theory of Service-Value
II. The Law of Free Utility and Rent
III. The Relation of Profits to Wages
IV. The Subordination of Producer to Consumer
V, The Law of Solidarity

CHAPTER II: THE APOGEE AND DECLINE OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. JOHN STUART MILL (M. Gide)
I. The Fundamental Laws
II. Mill’s Individualist-Socialist Programme
III. Mill’s Successors

BOOK IV: THE DISSENTERS
CHAPTER I : THE HISTORICAL SCHOOL AND THE CONFLICT OF METHODS (M. Rist)
I. The Origin and Development of the Historical School
II. The Critical Ideas of the Historical School
III. The Positive Ideas op the Historical School
Chapter II: STATE SOCIALISM (M. Rist)
I. The Economists’ Criticism of Laissez-Faire
II. The Socialistic Origin of State Socialist Rodbertus and Lassalle
1. Rodbertus
2. Lassalle
III. State Socialism— Properly so called

CHAPTER IV: MARXISM (M. Gide)
I. Karl Marx
1. Surplus Labour and Surplus Value
2. The Law of Concentration or Appropriation
II. The Marxian School
III. The Marxian Crisis and the Neo-Marxians
1. The Neo-Marxian Reformists
2. The Leo-Marxian Syndicalists

CHAPTER IV: DOCTRINES THAT OWE THEIR INSPIRATION TO CHRISTIANITY (M. Gide)
I. Le Play’s School
II. Social Catholicism
III. Social Protestantism
IV. The Mystics

BOOK V : RECENT DOCTRINES
CHAPTER I : THE HEDONISTS (M. Gibe)
I. The Pseudo-Renaissance of the Classical School
II. The Psychological School
III. The Mathematical School
IV. Criticism of the Hedonistic Doctrine

CHAPTER II: THE THEORY OF RENT AND ITS APPLICATIONS (M. Rist)
I. The Theoretical Extension of the Concept Rent
II. Unearned Increment and the Proposal to Confiscate Rent by Means of Taxation
III. Systems of Land Nationalisation
IV. Socialist Extensions of the Doctrine of Rent

CHAPTER III : THE SOLIDARISTS (M. Gide)
I. The Causes of the Development of Solidarism
II. The Solidarist Thesis
III. The Practical Application of Solidarist Doctrines
IV. Criticism

CHAPTER IV: THE ANARCHISTS (M. Rist)
I. Stibner’s Philosophical Anarchism and the Cult of the Individual
II. Social and Political Anarchism and the Criticism of Authority
III. Mutual Aid and the Anarchist Conception or Society
IV. Revolution

CONCLUSION (MM. Gide and Rist)