{"history":[],"article":{"id":"71c3a893-cdc3-473b-8d67-3bbed72a3037","title":"John Elliott Cairnes","slug":"john-elliott-cairnes","content":":::summary\n![John Elliott Cairnes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/John///Elliott///Cairnes///%281823///%E2%80%93///1875%29.jpg)\n**Name:** John Elliott Cairnes \n**Image Size:** 250px \n**Birth Date:** December 26, 1823 \n**Birth Place:** [Castlebellingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/castlebellingham), [County Louth](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-louth), [Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) \n**Death Date:** July 8, 1875 \n**Death Place:** [Blackheath](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackheath-london), near [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london), [England](https://bliptext.com/articles/england) \n**Nationality:** Irish \n**Spouse:** Elizabeth Charlotte Alexander (maiden) \n**Institutions:** [Queens College Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/nui-galway) · [University College London](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-college-london) \n**Field:** [Political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economy) \n**School Tradition:** [Classical economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/classical-economics) \n**Alma Mater:** [Trinity College Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-college-dublin) \n:::\n\n# \n**John Elliott Cairnes** (26 December 1823 – 8 July 1875) was an [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) [political economist](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economist).\nHe has been described as the \"last of the [classical economists](https://bliptext.com/articles/classical-economists)\".\n\n# Biography\nJohn Cairnes was born at [Castlebellingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/castlebellingham), [County Louth](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-louth).\nHe was the son of William Elliott Cairnes (1787–1863) of Stameen, near [Drogheda](https://bliptext.com/articles/drogheda), and Marianne Woolsey, whose mother was the sister of [Sir William Bellingham, 1st Baronet](https://bliptext.com/articles/sir-william-bellingham-1st-baronet) of Castlebellingham.\nJohn's father decided upon a business career, against the wishes of his mother (Catherine Moore of Moore Hall, [Killinchy](https://bliptext.com/articles/killinchy)), and became a partner in the Woolsey Brewery at Castlebellingham.\nIn 1825, William Cairnes started on his own account in [Drogheda](https://bliptext.com/articles/drogheda), making the [Drogheda](https://bliptext.com/articles/drogheda) Brewery an unqualified success.\nHe was remembered for his great business capacity and for the deep interest he took in charity.\nAfter leaving school, John Cairnes spent some years in the [counting-house](https://bliptext.com/articles/counting-house) of his father at Drogheda.\nHis tastes, however, lay altogether in the direction of study, and he was permitted to enter [Trinity College Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-college-dublin), where he took the [degree](https://bliptext.com/articles/academic-degree) of BA in 1848, and six years later that of [M.A.He](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) was educated at [Trinity College, Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-college-dublin).\nAfter passing through the curriculum of Arts, he engaged in the study of Law and was called to the Irish [bar](https://bliptext.com/articles/bar-association).\nBut, he lacked a desire to pursue the legal profession, and over some ensuing years, he devoted himself to writing in various publications about social and economic questions and treatises that related to Ireland.\nHe focused mostly on [political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economy), which he studied thoroughly.\nWhile residing in [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin), he made the acquaintance of [Archbishop Whately](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-whately), who conceived a very high respect for Cairnes' character and abilities.\nIn 1856, a vacancy occurred in the [chair of political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/whately-chair-of-political-economy) at Dublin, founded by Whately, and Cairnes received the appointment.\nIn accordance with the regulations of the foundation, the lectures of his first year's course were published.\nThe book appeared in 1857 with the title Character and Logical Method of Political Economy.\nIt followed up on and expanded [J. S. Mill's](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-stuart-mill) treatment in the Essays on some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy, and formed an admirable introduction to the study of economics as a science.\nIn it, the author's peculiar powers of thought and expression are displayed to the best advantage.\nLogical exactness, precision of language, and firm grasp of the true nature of economic facts are the qualities characteristic of this as of all his other works.\nIf the book had done nothing more, it would still have conferred an inestimable benefit on political economists by its clear exposition of the true nature and meaning of the ambiguous term law.\nTo the view of the province and method of political economy expounded in this early work, the author always remained true, and several of his later essays, such as those on Political Economy and Land, Political Economy and Laissez-Faire, are but reiterations of the same doctrine.\nHis next contribution to economic science was a series of articles on the gold question, published partly in [Fraser's Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/fraser-s-magazine), in which the probable consequences of the increased supply of gold attendant on the [Australian](https://bliptext.com/articles/victorian-gold-rush) and [Californian gold discoveries](https://bliptext.com/articles/california-gold-rush) were analysed with great skill and ability.\nAnd a critical article on M. Chevaliers' work, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold, appeared in the [Edinburgh Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/edinburgh-review) for July 1860.\nIn 1861, Cairnes was appointed to the professorship of [jurisprudence](https://bliptext.com/articles/jurisprudence) and political economy in [Queens College Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/queens-college-galway), and in the following year he published his admirable work The Slave Power, one of the finest specimens of applied economic philosophy.\nThe inherent disadvantages of the employment of [slave](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavery) labour were exposed with great fulness and ability, and the conclusions arrived at have taken their place among the recognised doctrines of [political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economy).\nThe opinions expressed by Cairnes as to the probable issue of [American Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-civil-war) were largely verified by the actual course of events, and the appearance of the book had a marked influence on the attitude taken by serious political thinkers in England towards the [Confederate States of America](https://bliptext.com/articles/confederate-states-of-america).\nDuring the remainder of his residence at Galway, Professor Cairnes published nothing beyond some fragments and pamphlets, mainly upon [Irish questions](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-question).\nThe most valuable of these papers is the series devoted to the consideration of university education.\nHis health, at no time very good, was still further weakened in 1865 by a fall from his horse.\nHe was ever afterwards incapacitated from active exertion and was constantly liable to have his work interfered with by attacks of illness.\nIn 1866, he was appointed professor of political economy at [University College London](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-college-london).\nHe was compelled to spend the session 1868–1869 in Italy, but on his return continued to lecture until 1872.\nDuring his last session, he conducted a mixed class, with ladies being admitted to his lectures.\nHis health soon rendered it impossible for him to discharge his public duties; he resigned from his post in 1872 and retired with the honorary title of [professor emeritus](https://bliptext.com/articles/professor-emeritus) of political economy.\nIn 1873, his own university conferred on him the degree of [LL.D.](https://bliptext.com/articles/ll-d) He died at [Blackheath](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackheath-london), near London, on 8 July 1875.\n\n# Family\nCairnes, on 27 November 1860, married Elizabeth (\"Eliza\") Charlotte Alexander (maiden; 1838–1896) in [Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/galway) at the [St. Nicholas Collegiate Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/st-nicholas-collegiate-church).\nShe was the daughter of George Henry Minto Alexander (1811–1853), a Judge of the High Court in India.\nJohn and Eliza Cairnes had four children, a daughter and three sons, one being [William Elliot Cairnes](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-elliot-cairnes) (1862–1902), an officer and writer.\nJohn and Eliza named their second son, Robert Gould Cairnes (1863–1868), after [Robert Gould Shaw](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-gould-shaw) (1837–1863), a [Union Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/union-army) [Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-civil-war) hero.\n\n# Work\nThe last years of Cairnes' life were spent in the collection and publication of some scattered papers, contributing to various reviews and magazines, and in the preparation of his most extensive and important work.\nThe Political Essays, published in 1873, comprise all his papers relating to Ireland and its university system, together with some other articles of a somewhat similar nature.\nThe Essays in Political Economy, Theoretical and Applied, which appeared in the same year, contain the essays towards a solution of the gold question, brought up to date and tested by comparison with statistics of prices.\nAmong the other articles in the volume, the more important are the criticisms on [Frédéric Bastiat](https://bliptext.com/articles/fr-d-ric-bastiat) and [Auguste Comte](https://bliptext.com/articles/auguste-comte), and the essays on Political Economy and Land, and on Political Economy and Laissez-Faire, which have been referred to above.\nIn 1874, appeared his largest work, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy, newly Expounded, which is beyond doubt a worthy successor to the great treatises of [Adam Smith](https://bliptext.com/articles/adam-smith), [Thomas Malthus](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-malthus), [David Ricardo](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-ricardo) and [John Stuart Mill](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-stuart-mill).\nIt does not expound a completed system of political economy; many important doctrines are left untouched; and in general, the treatment of problems is not such as would be suited for a systematic manual.\nThe work is essentially a commentary on some of the principal doctrines of the English school of economists, such as [value](https://bliptext.com/articles/value-economics), cost of production, wages, [labour](https://bliptext.com/articles/labour-economics) and [capital](https://bliptext.com/articles/capital-economics), and international [value](https://bliptext.com/articles/value-economics)s, and is replete with keen criticism and lucid illustration.\nWhile in fundamental harmony with Mill, especially as regards the general conception of the science, Cairnes differs from him to a greater or lesser extent on nearly all the cardinal doctrines, subjects his opinions to a searching examination, and generally succeeds in giving to the truth that is common to both a firmer basis and a more precise statement.\nThe last labour to which he devoted himself was a republication of his first work on the Logical Method of Political Economy.\nTaken as a whole, the works of Cairnes formed the most important contribution to economic science made by the English school since the publication of J. S. Mill's Principles.\nIt is not possible to indicate more than generally the special advances in economic doctrine effected by him, but the following points may be noted as establishing for him a claim to a place beside Ricardo and Mill.\n**Cairnes' exposition of the province and method of political economy:** He never suffers it to be forgotten that political economy is a science and, consequently, that its results are entirely neutral with respect to social facts or systems.\nIt has simply to trace the necessary connections among the phenomena of wealth and dictates no rules for practice.\nFurther, he is distinctly opposed both to those who would treat political economy as an integral part of social philosophy, and to those who have attempted to express economic facts in quantitative formulae and to make economy a branch of applied mathematics.\nAccording to him political economy is a mixed science, its field being partly mental, partly physical.\nIt may be called a positive science, because its premises are facts, but it is [hypothetical](https://bliptext.com/articles/hypothesis) in so far as the laws it lays down are only approximately true, i.e. are only valid in the absence of counteracting agencies.\nFrom this view of the nature of the science, it follows at once that the method to be pursued must be that called by Mill the physical or concrete deductive, which starts from certain known causes, investigates their consequences and verifies or tests the result by comparison with facts of experience.\nIt may, perhaps, be thought that Cairnes gives too little attention to the effects of the organism of society on economic facts, and that he is disposed to overlook what [Walter Bagehot](https://bliptext.com/articles/walter-bagehot) called the postulates of political economy.\n**Cairnes' analysis of cost of production in its relation to value:** According to Mill, the universal elements in cost of production are the wages of labour and the profits of capital.\nTo this theory, Cairnes objects that wages, being remuneration, can in no sense be considered as cost, and could only have come to be regarded as cost in consequence of the whole problem being treated from the point of view of the capitalist, to whom, no doubt, the wages paid represent cost.\nThe real elements of cost of production he looks upon as labour, abstinence and [risk](https://bliptext.com/articles/risk), the second of these falling mainly, though not necessarily, upon the capitalist.\nIn this analysis, he, to a considerable extent, follows and improves upon [Nassau William Senior](https://bliptext.com/articles/nassau-william-senior), who had previously defined cost of [production](https://bliptext.com/articles/production-economics) as the sum of the labour and abstinence necessary to [production](https://bliptext.com/articles/production-economics).\n**Cairnes' exposition of the natural or social limit to free competition, and of its bearing on the [theory of value](https://bliptext.com/articles/theory-of-value-economics):** He points out that in any organised society, there can hardly be the ready transference of capital from one employment to another, which is the indispensable condition of free competition; while class distinctions render it impossible for labour to transfer itself readily to new occupations.\nSociety may thus be regarded as consisting of a series of non-competing industrial groups, with free competition among the members of any one group or class.\nNow, the only condition under which cost of production will regulate value is [perfect competition](https://bliptext.com/articles/perfect-competition).\nIt follows that the normal value of commodities-the value which gives to the producers the average and usual remuneration will depend upon cost of production only when the exchange is confined to the members of one class, among whom there is free competition.\nIn exchange between classes or non-competing industrial groups, the normal value is simply a case of international value, and depends upon reciprocal [demand](https://bliptext.com/articles/demand), that is to say, is such as will satisfy the equation of [demand](https://bliptext.com/articles/demand).\nThis theory is a substantial contribution to economic science and throws great light upon the general problem of value.\nAt the same time, it may be thought that Cairnes overlooked a point brought forward prominently by Senior, who also had called attention to the bearing of competition on the relation between cost of production and value.\nThe cost to the producer fixes the limit below which the price cannot fall without the supply being affected; but it is the desire of the consumer-i.e. what he is willing to give up rather than be compelled to produce the commodity for himself that fixes the maximum value of the article.\nTo treat the whole problem of natural or normal value from the point of view of the producer is to give but a one-sided theory of the facts.\nCairnes' defence of the [wages fund doctrine](https://bliptext.com/articles/wages-fund-doctrine): This doctrine, expounded by Mill in his Principles, had been relinquished by him, but Cairnes still undertook to defend it.\nHe certainly succeeded in removing from the theory much that bad tended to obscure its real meaning and in placing it in its very best aspect.\nHe also showed the sense in which, when treating the problem of wages, we must refer to some fund devoted to the payment of wages, and pointed out the conditions under which the wages fund may increase or decrease.\nIt may be added that his Leading Principles contain admirable discussions on trade unions and protection, together with a clear analysis of the difficult theory of [international trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-trade) and value, in which there is much that is both novel and valuable.\nThe Logical Method contains an exposition and defence of Ricardo's theory of rent, and the Essays contain a criticism of [Frédéric Bastiat](https://bliptext.com/articles/fr-d-ric-bastiat)'s economic doctrines.\n\n# Selected extant publications\n\n## Articles, lectures, papers\n

[Dublin Statistical Society](https://bliptext.com/articles/statistical-and-social-inquiry-society-of-ireland), papers:\n

[Journal of the Dublin Statistical Society](https://bliptext.com/articles/statistical-and-social-inquiry-society-of-ireland)\n

[Fraser's Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/fraser-s-magazine)\n

[Edinburgh Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/edinburgh-review)\n

[The Economist](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-economist)\n

[Fortnightly Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-fortnightly-review), volumes numbered by New Series\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
[Herbert Spencer](https://bliptext.com/articles/herbert-spencer) on Social Evolution\n

[Macmillan's Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/macmillan-s-magazine)\n

\n\n## Compilations, reprints\n

\n\n

\n\"Postscript\"\n
\n
\n\"Postscript\"\n
\n
\n\"Note\"\n
\n
\n\"Note\"\n
\"Bastait\" (re: [Frédéric Bastiat](https://bliptext.com/articles/fr-d-ric-bastiat))

","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T21:31:17.997Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T21:31:17.997Z","search_vector":"'cairn':3 'elliott':2 'john':1","search_content":" \n \n**Name:** John Elliott Cairnes \n**Image Size:** 250px \n**Birth Date:** December 26, 1823 \n**Birth Place:** [Castlebellingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/castlebellingham), [County Louth](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-louth), [Ireland](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) \n**Death Date:** July 8, 1875 \n**Death Place:** [Blackheath](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackheath-london), near [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london), [England](https://bliptext.com/articles/england) \n**Nationality:** Irish \n**Spouse:** Elizabeth Charlotte Alexander (maiden) \n**Institutions:** [Queens College Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/nui-galway) · [University College London](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-college-london) \n**Field:** [Political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economy) \n**School Tradition:** [Classical economics](https://bliptext.com/articles/classical-economics) \n**Alma Mater:** [Trinity College Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-college-dublin) \n \n\n# \n**John Elliott Cairnes** (26 December 1823 – 8 July 1875) was an [Irish](https://bliptext.com/articles/republic-of-ireland) [political economist](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economist).\nHe has been described as the \"last of the [classical economists](https://bliptext.com/articles/classical-economists)\".\n\n# Biography\nJohn Cairnes was born at [Castlebellingham](https://bliptext.com/articles/castlebellingham), [County Louth](https://bliptext.com/articles/county-louth).\nHe was the son of William Elliott Cairnes (1787–1863) of Stameen, near [Drogheda](https://bliptext.com/articles/drogheda), and Marianne Woolsey, whose mother was the sister of [Sir William Bellingham, 1st Baronet](https://bliptext.com/articles/sir-william-bellingham-1st-baronet) of Castlebellingham.\nJohn's father decided upon a business career, against the wishes of his mother (Catherine Moore of Moore Hall, [Killinchy](https://bliptext.com/articles/killinchy)), and became a partner in the Woolsey Brewery at Castlebellingham.\nIn 1825, William Cairnes started on his own account in [Drogheda](https://bliptext.com/articles/drogheda), making the [Drogheda](https://bliptext.com/articles/drogheda) Brewery an unqualified success.\nHe was remembered for his great business capacity and for the deep interest he took in charity.\nAfter leaving school, John Cairnes spent some years in the [counting-house](https://bliptext.com/articles/counting-house) of his father at Drogheda.\nHis tastes, however, lay altogether in the direction of study, and he was permitted to enter [Trinity College Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-college-dublin), where he took the [degree](https://bliptext.com/articles/academic-degree) of BA in 1848, and six years later that of [M.A.He](https://bliptext.com/articles/master-of-arts) was educated at [Trinity College, Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/trinity-college-dublin).\nAfter passing through the curriculum of Arts, he engaged in the study of Law and was called to the Irish [bar](https://bliptext.com/articles/bar-association).\nBut, he lacked a desire to pursue the legal profession, and over some ensuing years, he devoted himself to writing in various publications about social and economic questions and treatises that related to Ireland.\nHe focused mostly on [political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economy), which he studied thoroughly.\nWhile residing in [Dublin](https://bliptext.com/articles/dublin), he made the acquaintance of [Archbishop Whately](https://bliptext.com/articles/richard-whately), who conceived a very high respect for Cairnes' character and abilities.\nIn 1856, a vacancy occurred in the [chair of political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/whately-chair-of-political-economy) at Dublin, founded by Whately, and Cairnes received the appointment.\nIn accordance with the regulations of the foundation, the lectures of his first year's course were published.\nThe book appeared in 1857 with the title Character and Logical Method of Political Economy.\nIt followed up on and expanded [J. S. Mill's](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-stuart-mill) treatment in the Essays on some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy, and formed an admirable introduction to the study of economics as a science.\nIn it, the author's peculiar powers of thought and expression are displayed to the best advantage.\nLogical exactness, precision of language, and firm grasp of the true nature of economic facts are the qualities characteristic of this as of all his other works.\nIf the book had done nothing more, it would still have conferred an inestimable benefit on political economists by its clear exposition of the true nature and meaning of the ambiguous term law.\nTo the view of the province and method of political economy expounded in this early work, the author always remained true, and several of his later essays, such as those on Political Economy and Land, Political Economy and Laissez-Faire, are but reiterations of the same doctrine.\nHis next contribution to economic science was a series of articles on the gold question, published partly in [Fraser's Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/fraser-s-magazine), in which the probable consequences of the increased supply of gold attendant on the [Australian](https://bliptext.com/articles/victorian-gold-rush) and [Californian gold discoveries](https://bliptext.com/articles/california-gold-rush) were analysed with great skill and ability.\nAnd a critical article on M. Chevaliers' work, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold, appeared in the [Edinburgh Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/edinburgh-review) for July 1860.\nIn 1861, Cairnes was appointed to the professorship of [jurisprudence](https://bliptext.com/articles/jurisprudence) and political economy in [Queens College Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/queens-college-galway), and in the following year he published his admirable work The Slave Power, one of the finest specimens of applied economic philosophy.\nThe inherent disadvantages of the employment of [slave](https://bliptext.com/articles/slavery) labour were exposed with great fulness and ability, and the conclusions arrived at have taken their place among the recognised doctrines of [political economy](https://bliptext.com/articles/political-economy).\nThe opinions expressed by Cairnes as to the probable issue of [American Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-civil-war) were largely verified by the actual course of events, and the appearance of the book had a marked influence on the attitude taken by serious political thinkers in England towards the [Confederate States of America](https://bliptext.com/articles/confederate-states-of-america).\nDuring the remainder of his residence at Galway, Professor Cairnes published nothing beyond some fragments and pamphlets, mainly upon [Irish questions](https://bliptext.com/articles/irish-question).\nThe most valuable of these papers is the series devoted to the consideration of university education.\nHis health, at no time very good, was still further weakened in 1865 by a fall from his horse.\nHe was ever afterwards incapacitated from active exertion and was constantly liable to have his work interfered with by attacks of illness.\nIn 1866, he was appointed professor of political economy at [University College London](https://bliptext.com/articles/university-college-london).\nHe was compelled to spend the session 1868–1869 in Italy, but on his return continued to lecture until 1872.\nDuring his last session, he conducted a mixed class, with ladies being admitted to his lectures.\nHis health soon rendered it impossible for him to discharge his public duties; he resigned from his post in 1872 and retired with the honorary title of [professor emeritus](https://bliptext.com/articles/professor-emeritus) of political economy.\nIn 1873, his own university conferred on him the degree of [LL.D.](https://bliptext.com/articles/ll-d) He died at [Blackheath](https://bliptext.com/articles/blackheath-london), near London, on 8 July 1875.\n\n# Family\nCairnes, on 27 November 1860, married Elizabeth (\"Eliza\") Charlotte Alexander (maiden; 1838–1896) in [Galway](https://bliptext.com/articles/galway) at the [St. Nicholas Collegiate Church](https://bliptext.com/articles/st-nicholas-collegiate-church).\nShe was the daughter of George Henry Minto Alexander (1811–1853), a Judge of the High Court in India.\nJohn and Eliza Cairnes had four children, a daughter and three sons, one being [William Elliot Cairnes](https://bliptext.com/articles/william-elliot-cairnes) (1862–1902), an officer and writer.\nJohn and Eliza named their second son, Robert Gould Cairnes (1863–1868), after [Robert Gould Shaw](https://bliptext.com/articles/robert-gould-shaw) (1837–1863), a [Union Army](https://bliptext.com/articles/union-army) [Civil War](https://bliptext.com/articles/american-civil-war) hero.\n\n# Work\nThe last years of Cairnes' life were spent in the collection and publication of some scattered papers, contributing to various reviews and magazines, and in the preparation of his most extensive and important work.\nThe Political Essays, published in 1873, comprise all his papers relating to Ireland and its university system, together with some other articles of a somewhat similar nature.\nThe Essays in Political Economy, Theoretical and Applied, which appeared in the same year, contain the essays towards a solution of the gold question, brought up to date and tested by comparison with statistics of prices.\nAmong the other articles in the volume, the more important are the criticisms on [Frédéric Bastiat](https://bliptext.com/articles/fr-d-ric-bastiat) and [Auguste Comte](https://bliptext.com/articles/auguste-comte), and the essays on Political Economy and Land, and on Political Economy and Laissez-Faire, which have been referred to above.\nIn 1874, appeared his largest work, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy, newly Expounded, which is beyond doubt a worthy successor to the great treatises of [Adam Smith](https://bliptext.com/articles/adam-smith), [Thomas Malthus](https://bliptext.com/articles/thomas-malthus), [David Ricardo](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-ricardo) and [John Stuart Mill](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-stuart-mill).\nIt does not expound a completed system of political economy; many important doctrines are left untouched; and in general, the treatment of problems is not such as would be suited for a systematic manual.\nThe work is essentially a commentary on some of the principal doctrines of the English school of economists, such as [value](https://bliptext.com/articles/value-economics), cost of production, wages, [labour](https://bliptext.com/articles/labour-economics) and [capital](https://bliptext.com/articles/capital-economics), and international [value](https://bliptext.com/articles/value-economics)s, and is replete with keen criticism and lucid illustration.\nWhile in fundamental harmony with Mill, especially as regards the general conception of the science, Cairnes differs from him to a greater or lesser extent on nearly all the cardinal doctrines, subjects his opinions to a searching examination, and generally succeeds in giving to the truth that is common to both a firmer basis and a more precise statement.\nThe last labour to which he devoted himself was a republication of his first work on the Logical Method of Political Economy.\nTaken as a whole, the works of Cairnes formed the most important contribution to economic science made by the English school since the publication of J. S. Mill's Principles.\nIt is not possible to indicate more than generally the special advances in economic doctrine effected by him, but the following points may be noted as establishing for him a claim to a place beside Ricardo and Mill.\n**Cairnes' exposition of the province and method of political economy:** He never suffers it to be forgotten that political economy is a science and, consequently, that its results are entirely neutral with respect to social facts or systems.\nIt has simply to trace the necessary connections among the phenomena of wealth and dictates no rules for practice.\nFurther, he is distinctly opposed both to those who would treat political economy as an integral part of social philosophy, and to those who have attempted to express economic facts in quantitative formulae and to make economy a branch of applied mathematics.\nAccording to him political economy is a mixed science, its field being partly mental, partly physical.\nIt may be called a positive science, because its premises are facts, but it is [hypothetical](https://bliptext.com/articles/hypothesis) in so far as the laws it lays down are only approximately true, i.e. are only valid in the absence of counteracting agencies.\nFrom this view of the nature of the science, it follows at once that the method to be pursued must be that called by Mill the physical or concrete deductive, which starts from certain known causes, investigates their consequences and verifies or tests the result by comparison with facts of experience.\nIt may, perhaps, be thought that Cairnes gives too little attention to the effects of the organism of society on economic facts, and that he is disposed to overlook what [Walter Bagehot](https://bliptext.com/articles/walter-bagehot) called the postulates of political economy.\n**Cairnes' analysis of cost of production in its relation to value:** According to Mill, the universal elements in cost of production are the wages of labour and the profits of capital.\nTo this theory, Cairnes objects that wages, being remuneration, can in no sense be considered as cost, and could only have come to be regarded as cost in consequence of the whole problem being treated from the point of view of the capitalist, to whom, no doubt, the wages paid represent cost.\nThe real elements of cost of production he looks upon as labour, abstinence and [risk](https://bliptext.com/articles/risk), the second of these falling mainly, though not necessarily, upon the capitalist.\nIn this analysis, he, to a considerable extent, follows and improves upon [Nassau William Senior](https://bliptext.com/articles/nassau-william-senior), who had previously defined cost of [production](https://bliptext.com/articles/production-economics) as the sum of the labour and abstinence necessary to [production](https://bliptext.com/articles/production-economics).\n**Cairnes' exposition of the natural or social limit to free competition, and of its bearing on the [theory of value](https://bliptext.com/articles/theory-of-value-economics):** He points out that in any organised society, there can hardly be the ready transference of capital from one employment to another, which is the indispensable condition of free competition; while class distinctions render it impossible for labour to transfer itself readily to new occupations.\nSociety may thus be regarded as consisting of a series of non-competing industrial groups, with free competition among the members of any one group or class.\nNow, the only condition under which cost of production will regulate value is [perfect competition](https://bliptext.com/articles/perfect-competition).\nIt follows that the normal value of commodities-the value which gives to the producers the average and usual remuneration will depend upon cost of production only when the exchange is confined to the members of one class, among whom there is free competition.\nIn exchange between classes or non-competing industrial groups, the normal value is simply a case of international value, and depends upon reciprocal [demand](https://bliptext.com/articles/demand), that is to say, is such as will satisfy the equation of [demand](https://bliptext.com/articles/demand).\nThis theory is a substantial contribution to economic science and throws great light upon the general problem of value.\nAt the same time, it may be thought that Cairnes overlooked a point brought forward prominently by Senior, who also had called attention to the bearing of competition on the relation between cost of production and value.\nThe cost to the producer fixes the limit below which the price cannot fall without the supply being affected; but it is the desire of the consumer-i.e. what he is willing to give up rather than be compelled to produce the commodity for himself that fixes the maximum value of the article.\nTo treat the whole problem of natural or normal value from the point of view of the producer is to give but a one-sided theory of the facts.\nCairnes' defence of the [wages fund doctrine](https://bliptext.com/articles/wages-fund-doctrine): This doctrine, expounded by Mill in his Principles, had been relinquished by him, but Cairnes still undertook to defend it.\nHe certainly succeeded in removing from the theory much that bad tended to obscure its real meaning and in placing it in its very best aspect.\nHe also showed the sense in which, when treating the problem of wages, we must refer to some fund devoted to the payment of wages, and pointed out the conditions under which the wages fund may increase or decrease.\nIt may be added that his Leading Principles contain admirable discussions on trade unions and protection, together with a clear analysis of the difficult theory of [international trade](https://bliptext.com/articles/international-trade) and value, in which there is much that is both novel and valuable.\nThe Logical Method contains an exposition and defence of Ricardo's theory of rent, and the Essays contain a criticism of [Frédéric Bastiat](https://bliptext.com/articles/fr-d-ric-bastiat)'s economic doctrines.\n\n# Selected extant publications\n\n## Articles, lectures, papers\n [Dublin Statistical Society](https://bliptext.com/articles/statistical-and-social-inquiry-society-of-ireland), papers:\n \n \n \n [Journal of the Dublin Statistical Society](https://bliptext.com/articles/statistical-and-social-inquiry-society-of-ireland)\n \n \n \n [Fraser's Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/fraser-s-magazine)\n \n \n \n [Edinburgh Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/edinburgh-review)\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n [The Economist](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-economist)\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n [Fortnightly Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-fortnightly-review), volumes numbered by New Series\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n [Herbert Spencer](https://bliptext.com/articles/herbert-spencer) on Social Evolution\n \n \n \n \n \n \n [Macmillan's Magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/macmillan-s-magazine)\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n## Compilations, reprints\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\"Postscript\"\n \n \n \n\"Postscript\"\n \n \n\"Note\"\n \n \n\"Note\"\n \"Bastait\" (re: [Frédéric Bastiat](https://bliptext.com/articles/fr-d-ric-bastiat)) \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

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