James Steuart (economist)
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Sir James Steuart, 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees and
Early life
He was one of 12 children of
He then spent some years on the Continent, and while in Rome entered into relations with the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart. He was in Edinburgh in 1745, and so compromised himself that, after the battle of Culloden, he found it necessary to return to the Continent, where he remained until 1763. It was not until 1771 that he was fully pardoned for any complicity he may have had in the rebellion. He died at his family seat, Coltness, in Lanarkshire.[6]
He married Lady Frances Wemyss (1722–1789), younger sister of
Family
Steuart was descended from another Sir James Stewart, knight, an Edinburgh merchant and staunch Presbyterian, who supported
Titles
The 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees, the subject of this article, inherited his baronetcy and estates at the age of fourteen. He eventually acquired much of the possession of his cousins, the senior line of Steuarts. Sir Thomas Steuart of Coltness, had married twice: to Margaret Elliot, his step-mother's daughter, and then to Susan Denham, the sister of Sir William Denham, 1st Baronet of Westshield, Master of the Mint for Scotland, and had fourteen sons by them. His eldest son had sold the estate and mansion (but not the title) of Coltness to 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees' father, in 1712.[8][9] The 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees is, therefore, often called of Coltness, since it was his house.
The 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees, however, eventually sold the estate of Goodtrees after he returned from France. By that time, the last surviving son of Sir Thomas Steuart had inherited the
For the last four years of his life, therefore, he was Sir James Steuart Denham, Baronet, of Coltness and Westshield. His major book and his posthumous collected works were published as by Sir James Steuart; economic literature also calls him Sir James Steuart Denham.
Works
In 1767 Steuart published An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy,[3] the first book by a Scottish economist with 'political economy' in the title, explaining usage of the term as that:
[just as] economy in general [is] the art of providing for all the wants of a family, [so the science of political economy] seeks to secure a certain fund of subsistence for all the inhabitants, to obviate every circumstance which may render it precarious; to provide every thing necessary for supplying the wants of the society, and to employ the inhabitants ... in such manner as naturally to create reciprocal relations and dependencies between them, so as to supply one another with reciprocal wants.[10]
The book was the most complete and systematic survey of the science from the point of view of moderate
Mercantilism was the school of thought that held that a positive balance of trade was of primary importance for any nation and required a ban on the export of gold and silver. This theory led to high protective
At the level of any individual sales transaction, mercantilism held that profit was developed at the point of the sale. Steuart held that profit was a mere "surcharge" upon alienation (sale) of the commodity.[13] Steuart was not a pure mercantilist, however, he believed in a "scientific form of mercantilism."[14] Steuart held that all profit arose from the seller "overcharging" the buyer in any single sales transaction. However, Steuart did allow that the "profit" obtained through exchange would "fluctuate" with the rise and/or fall in demand.[15] Still like all good mercantilists, Steuart's eye remained on the exchange as the creator of profit and he recognized no value in a commodity before the sale.
Steuart was one of the last representatives of the mercantilist school of economic thought.[16]
Although the work appears to have been well received its impact was overshadowed by Smith's
Bibliography
- The Works, Political, Metaphysical and Chronological, of the late Sir James Steuart of Coltness, Bart., now first collected, with Anecdotes of the Author, by his Son, General Sir James Denham Steuart, were published in 6 vols 8vo in 1805. Besides the Inquiry they include:
- A Dissertation upon the Doctrine and Principles of Money applied to the German Coin (1758)
- Apologie du sentiment de M. le Chevalier Newton sur l'ancienne chronologie des Grecs (4to, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1757)
- An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy: Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations, in Which Are Particularly Considered Population, Agriculture, Trade, Industry, Money, Coin, Interest, Circulation, Banks, Exchange, Public Credit, and Taxes, ([1767, 2 v.] 1770). Title page and chapter links, [c], v. 2, and v. 1.
- The Principles of Money applied to the Present State ef Bengal, published at the request of the East India Company (4to, 1772)
- A Dissertation on the Policy of Grain (1783)
- Plan for introducing Uniformity in Weights and Measures within the Limits of the British Empire (1790)
- Observations on Beattie's Essay on Truth
- A Dissertation concerning the Motive of Obedience to the Law of God, and other treatises.
References
- Notes
- Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ Groenewegen, Peter. "Political Economy". www.dictionaryofeconomics.com. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ a b Steuart, Sir James (1770). An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy: Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations, in which are Particularly Considered Population, Agriculture, Trade, Industry, Money, Coin, Interest, Circulation, Banks, Exchange, Public Credit, and Taxes. James Williams and Richard Moncrieffe.
- ^ Stewart, James (1770). An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy.
- required.)
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ "Lady Frances Wemyss (1722–1789), Lady Steuart Denham". artuk.org. Art UK. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ Reliable sources differ on when and to whom the Goodtrees baronetcy was given. It was in honour of the Lord Advocate, but while the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography twice says it was conferred on him in 1695, the Complete Baronetcy says it was given to his son, the future Solicitor General, in 1705, on the occasion of the son's marriage, in the father's lifetime. The chief significance of this question is the numbering of the baronets; it is not inconceivable that both grants occurred.
- ^ ODNB, Complete Baronetage
- ^ Steuart ([1767, 1770] 1966), Sir James (1770). An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy: Being An Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations, v. 1. Oliver and Boyd for the Scottish Economic Society. pp. 91–93 and pp. 2–3.
As quoted in Peter Groenwegen (1987 [2008]), "'political economy' and 'economics'," The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 3, p. 905.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ See page 16 in Willy MOOG: Hegel und die Hegelsche Schule. Published by Ernst Reinhard Verlag, Munich, 1930.
- ^ M. Beer "Early British Economics: from the XIIth to the middle of the XVIIIth century". Frank Cass, London 1967
- ^ Karl Marx, "Theories of Surplus Value" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 31 (International Publishers: New York, 1989) p. 40.
- ^ Karl Marx, "Theories of Surplus Value" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 30 (International Publishers: New York, 1988), p. 348.
- ^ Karl Marx, "Outlines of the Critique of Political Economy" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 29 (International Publishers: New York, 1987) p. 163.
- ^ See biographical note in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 31 (International Publishers: New York, 1989) p. 605.
- Sources
- Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
- Hutchison, Terence (1988) - Before Adam Smith: the emergence of political economy.
- Monroe, Arthur Eli (1923) - Monetary theory before Adam Smith
- Sen, Samar Ranjan (1957) - The economics of Sir James Steuart
- Skinner, Andrew (1966) - "Introduction" in An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy, (2 vols.) ed. by A. Skinner for the Scottish Economic Society.
- Vickers, Douglas (1959) - Studies in the Theory of Money, 1690-1776
- Viner, Jacob (1937) - Studies in the Theory of International Trade
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Steuart, Sir James Denham". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 904. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Profile of Sir James Denham Steuart at the History of Economic Thought website.
- An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, book on marxists.org