Online Library of Liberty: Economics, vol. 2: Modern Economic Problems

individuals is affected in many ways, often remote and unsuspected, on the one hand by impersonal factors such as the production of gold or the invention of machinery, and on the other hand by the form and function of the social organization of which each of us is a part.

Some conceive of the economist’s task narrowly as being merely the study of market prices; others broaden the field to include the study of individual valuations and gratifications; and still others make it include the solution of all problems of economic legislation affecting the general welfare of society. No practical problem in the field of economics can be rightly solved as if it were an economic problem in any narrow sense untouched by political, moral, and social considerations. In this volume the broadest of these conceptions is taken, prices and values being studied because of their bearing upon social welfare. Welfare economics rather than price economics is our ideal.

References:

The titles of the chief encyclopedias of economics and of several good collections of general readings are given in the Manual of references and exercises in economics, for use with the author’s Economic Principles, published by the Century Co., New York. (References to the author’s Source Book in Economics [1912] have been dropped in this edition, as that work is now out of print.) Several American general texts on political economy treat more or less fully the questions taken up in the present volume. Some of the texts are listed here, and are not referred to specifically in connection with the various chapters following.

Carver, T. N., Principles of political economy, 1919.

Same, Principles of national economy. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1921.

Fisher, Irving, Elementary principles of economics. New York. Macmillan. 1912.

Ely, R. T., Outlines of economics. Rev. Ed. New York. Macmillan. 1908. Clay, H. Economics. (American Revision.) New York. Macmillan. 1918. Seager, H. R., Principles of economics. New York. Holt. 1913.

Seligman, E. R. A., Principles of economics. 3d ed.

Taussig, F. W., Principles of economics. 2 vols. New York. Macmillan. 1911. Turner, J. R., Introduction to economics. New York. Scribners. 1919.