The Mathematical Theory of Political Economy

Abstract

THE appearance of a new and enlarged edition affords us a wished-for opportunity of calling attention to this original work. Its author is one of the favoured few to whom belongs the honour of having made a discovery in political economy. The title of Ricardo to the theory of rent is not better than the title of Prof. Walras to a theory more comprehensive than that of rent. It is a claim founded on originality rather than priority. Prof. Walras is the last of a small band of original thinkers who, in the latter half of this century, have independently excogitated the cardinal article in the doctrine of value. They have contemplated in different aspects the same fundamental conception: that value in exchange is neither simply identical with, nor wholly different from, value in use, but corresponds to the utility of the last, the least useful, portion of the commodities exchanged. “Nutzlichkeit des letzten Mengentheilchens,” “Degree of Final Utility,” “Grenznutzen,” and “Rareté”—in different tongues and various terminology they proclaim the one essential truth which will be for ever associated with the names of Gossen, Jevons, Menger, and Walras.

Éléments d'Économie Politique Pure.

Par Léon Walras. (Lausanne: F. Rouge, 1889.)