Samuel Bailey

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Samuel Bailey, 1791-1870.

English proto-marginalist economist, critic of the Classical Ricardian School.

Bailey's reputation rests chiefly on his anonymous 1825 treatise, A Critical Dissertation, etc., which was written in response to de Quincey's Templars' Dialogue. Bailey pointed out the logical difficulties of both the labor theory of value and Ricardo's "invariable measure". Bailey also called for the generalization of the Ricardian theory of rent to wages. As a result, Bailey promoted a "cost of production" theory of value, which incorporated capital as well as labor. He might also be credited with the introduction of the notion of time-preference, arguing that "we generally prefer a present pleasure or enjoyment to a distant one, not superior to it in other respects." (Bailey, 1825). In response to a critical article in the Westminster Review, Bailey published his 1826 Letter restating his views.

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Major Works of Samuel Bailey

[Anon.] Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions, 1821
[Anon.] Questions in Political Economy, Politics, Morals, Metaphysics, Polite Literature, and other branches of knowledge, 1823
[Anon.] A Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measures and Causes of Value, chiefly in reference to the Writings of Mr. Ricardo and his followers, 1825 copy
[Anon.] A Letter to a Political Economist, occasioned by an article in the Westminster Review on the subject of value, 1826.
[Anon.] Essays on the Pursuit of Truth and on the Progress of Knowledge, 1829. [2nd ed., 1844]
[Anon.] The Rationale of Political Representation, 1835.
[Anon.] Money and its Vicissitudes in Value, as they affect national industry and pecuniary contracts, with a post-script on Joint-Stock Banks, 1837
A Defense of Joint-Stock Banks and Country Issues, 1840
A Review of Berkeley's Theory of Vision: Designed to show the unsoundness of that celebrated speculation, 1842
[Anon.] Maro, or poetic irritability, 1845
Theory of Reasoning, 1851.
Discourses on Various Subjects, read before literary and philosophical societies, 1852, incl. Disc. IV, "On the Science of Political Economy"
Letters on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1855-63, v.1, (1855), v.2 (1858), v.3 (1863)
On the Received Text of Shakespeare's Dramatic Writings and its Improvement, 1862-66, v.1 (1863), v.2 (1866)

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Resources on Samuel Bailey

[James Mill?] "Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measures and Causes of Value", Jan, 1826, Westminster Review
[James Mill] "The Formation of Opinions", Jul, 1826, Westminster Review
[?] "On S. Bailey's Essay in Pursuit of Truth", Oct 1829, Westminster Review
Bailey page by Paulette Taieb
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