Industrial Efficiency and Social Economy (Volume One)

Senior's Political Economy, published in 1836, has hitherto been regarded as the quintessence of his literary productions. Economists have generally mistakenly taken it for granted that with the publication of that work the author's economic contributions prematurely came to an end. These original documents, constituting the author's matured views on the general principles of economics, have been carefully arranged in logical sequence and embodied in the present comprehensive work. The scope of this treatise is confined to Senior's matured, or latest, views on the general principles of economics.
Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) - economist, critical essayist and government adviser - was a highly original classical economist in the era between Ricardo's Principles of 1817 and Mill's Principles of 1848. He was the first Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, and in his published works he made original contributions to the theory of value, rent, population, money, and international trade. Senior was an active proponent of laissez-faire. Although Senior did not achieve the originality and influence of the leading economists of the classical school - Smith, Ricardo, and Malthus - he did make an enduring contribution on the development of economics. John Stuart Mill took much effort to respond to Senior.