History and criticism of the labor theory of value in English political economy
QR code
"History and criticism of the labor theory of value in English political economy" by Albert C. Whitaker is a scholarly historical study written in the early 20th century. It examines how English economists developed and debated the labor theory of value, separating “philosophical” (primitive, essence-seeking) accounts from “empirical” (market and cost-based) explanations, and follows the doctrine from Adam Smith and Ricardo through Malthus, McCulloch, James Mill, Torrens, Senior, John Stuart Mill, and
Cairnes. The opening of the work sets its scope and method, rejecting the idea of a single, unified “classical” labor theory and framing the history around two strands: a philosophical account that roots value in labor and an empirical account that explains market prices by entrepreneurs’ costs. It then dissects Adam Smith’s multiple and inconsistent treatments—his labor-cost regulator versus labor-command measure, his handling of labor as both productive power and disutility, and his corn-as-index idea—before showing how Smith abandons labor-cost for advanced society while retaining labor-command as a measure. Whitaker criticizes this move, then turns to Ricardo as a more consistent architect who treats utility as a prerequisite, excludes pure scarcity goods, counts indirect labor, and grapples—often obscurely—with profits and the fixed-versus-circulating capital complication in normal price (wages plus profits). The excerpt closes by introducing McCulloch, James Mill, and Torrens, highlighting McCulloch’s dogmatic broadening of “labor” (to include nature and machines) and noting his anticipation of the later Marxian “organic composition of capital” problem and its aggregate-value “solution.” (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Download for free
For your e-reader or reading app — Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books, Calibre etc.
Kindle → Use Send-to-Kindle
Kobo, Nook etc → Transfer via USB
Phone, tablet or computer → Open in a reading app
Other formats & older devices
There may be more files related to this item.
About this eBook
| Author | Whitaker, Albert C. (Albert Conser), 1877-1965 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 05010468 |
| Title | History and criticism of the labor theory of value in English political economy |
| Original Publication | New York: The Columbia University Press, 1904. |
| Series Title | Studies in history, economics and public law, volume XIX, number 2 |
| Credits | Curtis Weyant and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 47.6 (College-level). Difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | HB: Social sciences: Economic theory, Demography |
| Subject | Economics -- Great Britain -- History |
| Subject | Labor theory of value -- Great Britain -- History |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 76432 |
| Release Date | Jul 2, 2025 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1448 downloads in the last 30 days. |
Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free!