Mill, John Stuart, 1806–73

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John Stuart Mill Summary

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Routledge Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition

Mill, John Stuart, 1806–73 (B3)

English philosopher, political theorist and major classical economist. His father, James MILL, a close friend of BENTHAM, educated him at home in a rigorous programme which started with Greek at the age of 3 and reached political economy ten years later. John learned economics by making notes on RICARDO’S Principles which his father then published as Elements of Political Economy (1821). He followed his father into a clerkship in the East India Company where he was employed until 1858 and engaged in the political reform movements of the day being Member of Parliament for Westminster from 1865 to 1868. John turned his attention to a range of philosophical and political issues, writing on women’s rights, representative government, logic, UTILITARIANISM and liberty. But he made an outstanding contribution to economics, being more than he modestly claimed—a clarifier of SMITH’S and RICARDO’S ideas.

In his brilliant Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy, written when he was only 23 but not published until 1844, he developed the theory of RECIPROCAL DEMAND to explain the ratios at which nations would trade if they followed the principle of COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE. Also he introduced the idea of a demand schedule, refined SAY’S LAW and expounded one of the earliest theories of the TRADE CYCLE which he attributed to price delusion.

He returned to economics in his large Principles of Political Economy with Some of their Applications to Social Philosophy, first published in 1848, republished seven times in his lifetime and the standard textbook on the subject in the UK until MARSHALL’S Principles superseded it in 1890. Many features of the work were novel. He introduced a discussion of idealist SOCIALISM (ST SIMON and FOURIER)—partly under the influence of Harriet Taylor, later to be his wife—and clearly expounded what have become key economic concepts. In the Principles, OPPORTUNITY COST, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, the problem of JOINT COSTS and SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION in the labour market are some of his numerous innovations. His self-confident claim that he had finally sorted out the theory of value invited the ridicule of later writers, particularly JEVONS, but MARSHALL can in many respects be regarded as a follower.