Profile Major Works Resources

John Gray, 1799-1883. 

English Ricardian Socialist (not to be confused with earlier John Gray, the Physiocratic critic of Smith).

Originally from Derbyshire, John Gray moved to London as a teenager, where he worked as a clerk in a counting house and trying to launch a commercial career, but was quite embittered by the experience.  In 1815, Gray moved to Scotland, to join an Owenite colony, but was disappointed there too.  He moved to Edinburgh at some point after.  Gray's death date is variously given as 1850 or 1883.

John Gray's principal work is his Social System (1831). He was among the first to stress the human element in the destructiveness of competition.  As a substitute, he recommended co-operative institutions for exchange and production.

 

  

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Major Works of John Gray

  • Lecture on Human Happiness, being the first of a series of lectures on that subject, in which will be comprehended a general review of the causes of the existing evils of society, and a development of means by which they may be permanently and effectually removed, 1825. [bk]
  • The Social System: a treatise on the principle of exchange, 1831.[bk]
  • The Efficient Remedy for the Distress of Nations, 1842. [bk]
  • Lecture on the Nature and Use of Money, 1848. [bk]
HET

 
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Resources on John Gray

  • "Appendix" in Social System, with Gray's autobiographical thumbnail. [App]
  • "John Gray", by Esther Lowenthal, 1911, The Ricardian Socialists [Ch. 3]
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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