Introduction to Volume II

Abstract

The period from the passing of the Corn Laws in 1816 to their repeal in 1846 has been described, in terms of economic theory, as ‘the Age of Ricardo’, beginning with Ricardo’s own Principles of Political Economy and Taxation and ending with John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Ricardo dominated economic discourse in the early nineteenth century, in the words of one commentator, burning ‘deep scars on to the Classical-economic consciousness’. With regard to value theory, the historiography of Irish political economy has been dominated by the contribution of Mountifort Longfield, which received belated recognition as a progenitor of the subjective theory of value in the work of Seligman and Smith. In an Irish context, by virtue of his influence on Whately, Nassau Senior was one of the most influential anti-Ricardian political economists.