Abstract
THIS is a first instalment of what promises to be a very valuable addition to the English library of political economy. The plan of the work is laid down on broad lines, and includes not only articles dealing with strictly economic subjects, and explanations of legal and business terms, but good (though necessarily brief) accounts of historical events bearing on economic history, such as the establishment and downfall of the atéliers nationaux in Paris in 1848, and biographical notices of deceased writers whose life and work has had any connection with the development of economic theory or practice. That the biographical section of the dictionary is conceived in a liberal spirit is sufficiently proved by the fact that the first part, now under review, includes notices of Addison and Thomas Aquinas; the claim of the former to a place in a dictionary of political economy is based in the main on the fact that he held an official position in the Government of his time as one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade. This rather remote connection with economics may be open to criticism; and it remains to be seen whether Mr. Palgrave will include in his dictionary the honoured names of William Wordsworth and Robert Burns. It is not, however, desirable to say anything in the way of criticism which should tend to narrow the scope of the work. Its interest and vitality depend, to a large degree, on its broad inclusiveness.
Dictionary of Political Economy.
Edited by R. H. Inglis Palgrave Part I. Abatement—Bede. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891.)
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Dictionary of Political Economy. Nature 44, 564 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/044564a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/044564a0