A Treatise on the Industry of Nations
Or, The Principles of National Economy and Taxation

By exploring 'fiscal sociology', this two-volume set, first published in 1839, investigates issues of the nineteenth-century British economy.

Joseph Salway Eisdell (Author)

9781108036917, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 November 2011

628 pages
21.6 x 14 x 3.5 cm, 0.79 kg

In this two-volume work, originally published in 1839, the relatively unknown Joseph Salway Eisdell (1791–1876) explores the political economy of 1830s Britain from a different standpoint from that of many of his contemporaries. Influenced by Adam Smith and Michael Thomas Sadler, and in concordance with his contemporary, Irish economist Mountifort Longfield (1802–84), Eisdell's focus on 'fiscal sociology' places emphasis on industrial workers and the significance of human nature in economics. He reassesses economic and population trends by rejecting the (until then) well-regarded Malthusian principles. In many ways this work is a reflection of 1830s Victorian society, which was experiencing massive shifts towards industrialisation, urbanisation and modernisation, with accompanying political changes. Eisdell's later work, An Essay on the Causes and Remedies of Poverty (1852) demonstrates his continued enthusiasm for fiscal sociology. Volume 1 focuses on production, trade, the banks and population.

Preface
Preliminary Remarks: 1. The subject
2. On the measure of the products of industry
Book I. Production: 1. On the source whence the products of industry are derived, and the instruments by which they are acquired
2. On the circumstances conducive to the effectiveness of national industry, and the progress of opulence
3. On the influence of science and skill
4. On excitements to industry
5. On the circumstances which occasion employment, or a want of employment
6. Of property, and its classification
7. On the employment of capital and machinery
8. On the division of employments
9. On the freedom of industry
10. On the different kinds of industry, and the mode of their operation
11. Appropriative industry
12. Agricultural industry
13. Manufacturing
14. Commercial industry
15. On supply and demand
16. Of money
17. On the division of property
18. On population.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]