Marshall and the critics to the classical political economy

Abstract

This paper analyzes the period of transition between the Millian orthodoxy and the Marshallian orthodoxy with special emphasis on the influence of the economic debates of the 1870’s and 1880’s in the genesis of Marshall’s conceptions. It is argued that in these decades Political Economy was questioned in three different fronts: by the theoretical critics, by the adepts of the historical method, and by the humanists. It is also argued that Marshall answered these criticisms, sometimes by accepting and incorporating them, sometimes by rejecting them, and in doing so he was able to construct a new disciplinary consensus – that gave the foundations to the practice of the next generation of economists.

Jel Classification: B1; B12; B13.