Progress beyond growth: Some insights from Marshall's final book

Abstract

Alfred Marshall had a very challenging project to write a treatise in two or more volumes that could contain his main interests and reflections. Instead of that treatise, Marshall published three books (Principles of Economics, Industry and Trade and Money Credit and Commerce). They cover only in part the ground that the treatise should have contained. That is why Marshall went on with the idea of publishing another final book. In this paper, we give a brief summary of the structure and the contents of this book, focusing more in detail on some subjects particularly interesting and meaningful.

Keywords:

• Alfred Marshall
• progress
• wellbeing
• taxation
• ideals

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Roger Backhouse for his precious comments on previous drafts of the paper and the two anonymous referees of this Journal for their helpful suggestions. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

1 Marshall wanted to keep the words “volume I” on the cover of the book as long as possible, against the opinion of the editor Macmillan, who waited – in vain – for the following volume: The prolonged discussion on the project of Principles, volume II is well reflected in the rich correspondence between Marshall and the editor Macmillan published by John Whitaker (1996). As from the sixth edition of Principles, the words “volume I” disappeared from the cover, and the title became “An introductory volume”.

2 In Marshall's words it became “moribund” already in 1895 as written in a letter to Cannan, quoted in Whitaker (1990, p. 198).

3 This is clearly proved in the Preface to Money, Credit and Commerce: “The present volume is the third of a group, the main purpose of which is to study the direction of man's efforts for the attainment of material ends, to search for possibilities of improvements in that procedure which may increase the command of the peoples of the world over their resources and to enable them to develop their highest faculties.

The first volume of the group, Principles of Economics, published in 1890, emphasised the continuity of the main work of economic studies…Various causes delayed my work; and nearly thirty years elapsed before the appearance of Industry and Trade… It was designed to be followed by a study of the influences on the conditions of man's life and work, which are ‘‘exerted by the resources available for employment; by money and credit; by international trade and by social endeavour’’. However, that task is heavy, and achievement has been slow: therefore, it has seemed best to publish without further delay the present volume, which aims at accomplishing one-half of the task. A little progress has been made in regard to the second half and, although old age presses on me, I am not without hopes that some of the notions, which I have formed as to the possibilities of social advance, my yet be published” (Marshall 1923, pp. v–vi).

4 We are, of course, perfectly aware of the dangers and risks in assembling material that in itself is “incoherent”, often made up of scattered notes and partial remarks. Nonetheless, following a choice already taken by John Whitaker long ago (1977), we prefer to run a risk rather than forego presentation of Marshall's ideas and reflections on issues that are still singularly modern and topical.

5 Actually, this is to some extent speculation on our part. From many writings and notes, in fact, it is possible to say (from the kinds of pens and handwriting) that Marshall returned to them at various different times; in some cases we can say exactly “when” he went back to them, if the notes are dated (and many of them bear several different dates). However, only in certain cases it is explicitly indicated that they have some bearing on progress or ideals; part of the material we have, at any rate, decided to use are notes and writings that – by virtue of their very topic – are inevitably connected with the idea of progress in Marshall.

6 Part of this title “Progress: its economic conditions” has been suggested by J.M. Keynes (Pigou 1925, p. 65) as the final title of the volume on progress. As underlined by Whitaker (1990, p. 216, footnote 85), the warrant for this choice is unclear. The title is indeed only one among the many.

7 A clear distinction between progress and growth, as Groenewegen underlines (2005, pp. 30–31), is not traceable in the first edition of the Principles (1890), where Marshall identifies progress “with economic growth or ‘the growth of national dividend’’’.

8 Text written in a number of small folios, undated but numerated, with numbering modified several times with different pens and pencils. The text itself has been changed and modified several times.

9 As often pointed out by Marshall: “A certain minimum of means is necessary for material wellbeing. Something more than that minimum is necessary for a high class life” (folder 5.3.1). See on this aspect Whitaker (1990).

10 Undated note.

11 Undated note.

12 Undated note.

13 Undated note.

14 For Marshall's position on this point, see Groenewegen (1990).

15 Not explicitly dated but attributed (see Marshall Library Archive index) to 1923.

16 Undated manuscript, although clearly written by Marshall in his old age.

17 This manuscript was revised several times as testified by the different dates written in it: 10.10.03; 13.08.04; 27.02.12.

18 Two major works by Marshall on taxation are in fact to be recalled: The Memorandum on the Classification and Incidence of Imperial and Local Taxation (Marshall 1897) and National Taxation after the War (Marshall 1917).

19 For a comprehensive explanation of the British tax system and its evolution over time during Marshall's life, see Groenewegen (1990).

20 Although the manuscript is undated it is bound together with a note by his wife Mary in which she writes: “These pages were written during the last few months when his memory was failing”. Marshall's handwriting evidences his old age.

21 Text mainly cut from the Memorandum on the Classification and Incidence of Imperial and Local Taxation, for the Royal Commission on Local Taxation (1897), (in Keynes’ Official Papers, pp. 327–64). The text was extensively amended and modified by Marshall for a proper chapter: “Chapter III” to be inserted in the book on Progress.

22 Actually, two other criteria are recognised in Marshall: efficiency and simplicity (on these two aspects, see Groenewegen 1990, pp. 96–100). We focus here mainly on “equity”, as being more closely related with progress.

23 This manuscript, undated, appeared among some notes torn from a notebook, showing the handwriting of a no longer young Marshall, together with page numbering added subsequently in blue pencil.

24 This manuscript, undated, was written by Marshall in his old age and revised several times. It was intended for the book on progress, as evidenced by the sample of index for the volume on the reverse of the page.

25 Dated 7.9.11; 5.1.12 and 18.1.12.

26 Part of a late manuscript by Marshall. Undated.

27 See on this aspect Industry and Trade (Marshall 1919, pp. 812–3).

28 Dated 6.3.07.

29 See, for instance, the Preface in Industry and Trade (1919) and Money Credit and Commerce (1923).

30 Undated fragment.

31 In the interview with The Harvard Crimson, 11 April 1944. For Schumpeter's ‘‘philosophy of living’’ and Ruskin, see Shionoya (2012, chapter 4).

32 Ruskin's Unto This Last, which first appeared in 1860, had as its stated aim to give ‘‘a logical definition of wealth’’. Its second aim was to show that the acquisition of wealth was possible under certain moral conditions of society (Ruskin 1860, pp. vii–ix). Ruskin specified that to be ‘‘valuable’’ is to ‘‘avail towards life’’, and defined ‘‘valor’’ as to be ‘‘strong, in life (if a man), or valiant; strong for life (if a thing), or valuable’’. He declared that ‘‘a truly valuable or availing thing is that which leads to life with its whole strength’’. What varied greatly was the ability to appreciate and to use what was valuable: wealth was the possession of the valuable by the valiant (ibid., pp. 118, 125). He summed up: ‘‘there is no wealth but life. Life including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration’’ (ibid., p. 156). For further details of Ruskin's ‘‘economics of life’’, see Shionoya (2012, chapter 2).

33 For the Oxford approach and organic welfare, see Shionoya (2010) and Allett (1981).

34 In a manuscript note (undated), Marshall states that economics is worth study not only “(i) because money i.e. command over things is the sinews of war and that is the arbiter of independent national life” but also because “(ii)… there is a vast amount of life to be educed from the masses: provided they have money enough” (folder 5.9).

35 Undated fragment.

36 Undated fragment.

37 Fragment dated 6.3.22.

38 Dated 27.4.22.

39 In his early lectures to women, Marshall often referred approvingly to ‘‘Miss Hill's rules’’. He concurred with Octavia Hill's argument that it was much better to give work to the poor than to give either money or goods, for what really mattered was that ‘‘each man has his own view of his life, and must be free to fulfil it’’. ‘‘The poor of London need the development of every power that can open to them noble sources of joy… Each new joy is a new stimulus to work; a new cause for avoiding vice; a new means of living’’ Therefore, Marshall informed his young women students, we must regard a man as intelligent capital and try to make him productive (Raffaelli et al. 1995, pp. 147–48, 117, 119).

40 For a general updated view on Marshall's thought, see Raffaelli et al. (2006), in which several contributions underline the richness and intricacy of his economic, moral, social and political thinking.