John Bates Clark
John Bates Clark | |
---|---|
Born | Providence, Rhode Island, US | January 26, 1847
Died | March 21, 1938 New York City, US | (aged 91)
Academic career | |
Institution | Carleton College Johns Hopkins University Columbia University |
School or tradition | Neoclassical economics |
Alma mater | Amherst College |
Doctoral advisor | Karl Knies |
Doctoral students | Henry Moore Alvin Saunders Johnson |
Influences | Karl Knies |
Signature | |
John Bates Clark (January 26, 1847 – March 21, 1938) was an American
Biography
Clark was born and raised in
Theoretical work
This section possibly contains original research. Clark's own words are cited to describe his previous position, rather than secondary biographies. (November 2023) |
After his return, from 1877 onward, Clark published several articles most of them edited later in The Philosophy of Wealth (1886). There he formulated an original version of
(1878).Until 1886 Clark was a Christian socialist reflecting the view of his German teachers that competition is no universal remedy – especially not for fixing wages. Clark writes:
It is a dangerous mistake to extol competition, as such too highly, and regard all attacks upon it as revolutionary. … We do not eat men … but we do it by such indirect and refined methods that it does not generally occur to us that we are cannibals.[3]
He hoped that communism could be combatted by suppression and reform:
Among the adherents of Communism there is a large element that is simply murderous, and this deserves only the murderer's fate. ... It is possible that an indefinitely large proportion of declared communists in this country may be of worthless or criminal character.[4]
According to Clark only if "...the union of capital necessitates the union of labour" just wages will come about and may be fixed by arbitration.[5]
This view on fair wages changed in 1886: "Clark himself, it will be remembered has song down the doom of competition in The Philosophy of Wealth. But now … he has reversed his position and build[s] up a body of economic laws based on competition"
In 1888 Clark wrote Capital and Its Earnings. Frank Fetter later reflected on Bates' motivation for writing this work:
The probable source from which immediate stimulation came to Clark was the contemporary single tax discussion. ... Events were just at that time crowding each other fast in the single tax propaganda. [Henry George's] Progress and Poverty... had a larger sale than any other book ever written by an American. ... No other economic subject at the time was comparable in importance in the public eye with the doctrine of Progress and Poverty. Capital and its Earnings "... wears the mien of pure theory .... But ... one can hardly fail to see on almost every page the reflections of the contemporary single-tax discussion. In the brief preface is expressed the hope that 'it may be found that these principles settle questions of agrarian socialism.' Repeatedly the discussion turns to 'the capital that vests itself in land,'...[8]
The foundation of Clark's further work was competition: "If nothing suppresses competition, progress will continue forever".
Clark's conclusion rests upon the productive contribution of the last unit of physical labour – one hour unqualified labour – and the last unit of physical capital. To him heterogeneous capital goods have a second, a social form as homogeneous capital[15] (called jelly as a street can be moulded into an engine) and the productivity of the last unit of jelly determines profit. This retakes Karl Marx's view that commodities have a heterogeneous natural form (German: Naturalform) and also opposed to it a homogenous value-form (German: Wertform),[16] jelly. Clark might have known this Marxian construction from his German time and was reproached for this similarity.[17]
Clark's capital are not produced means of production each with a different production structure. It is an abstract, always existing and never perishing one great tool in the hand of working humanity[18] similar to a field or a waterfall, also considered capital by Clark.
The arguable sides of Clark's notion of capital helped to give rise to the
.Major works
- The Philosophy of Wealth: Economic Principles Newly Formulated (1886).
- Capital and Its Earnings (1888).
- The Distribution of Wealth: A Theory of Wages, Interest and Profits (1899).
- Essentials of Economic Theory (1907).
- Social Justice without Socialism (1914).
See also
- Marginal productivity theory
- John Bates Clark Medal
References
- ISBN 9781349131457.
- ^ Economics. "Famous Carleton Economists - Carleton College". www.carleton.edu. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
- ^ Clark 1878, p. 540
- ^ Clark 1878, p. 534
- The New Englander. 47 (1): 50–59.
- LCCN 68020310.
- ^ Everett, John Rutherford (1946). Religion in Economics. Morningside Heights, New York: King's Crown Press. p. 73.
- The Macmillan Company. pp. 136–156.
- The Macmillan Company. p. 374.
- Ginn & Company. p. 2.
- ^ Clark 1891
- ^ Clark 1908
- ISSN 0022-3808.
- ^ Clark 1891, p. 313
- ^ Clark 1908, pp. 59–60
- ^ Marx, Karl (1867). "The Value-Form". Capital. Vol. 1. Translated by Roth, Mike; Suchting, Wal (1st ed.) – via Marxists Internet Archive.
- JSTOR 1885860.
- ^ Clark 1908, p. 117
- Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911. .
Sources
- Clark, John Bates (July 1878). "How to Deal with Communism". The New Englander. 37 (145): 533–542.
- Clark, John Bates (April 1891). "Distribution as Determined by a Law of Rent". JSTOR 1879611.
- Clark, John Bates (1908). The Distribution of Wealth: A Theory of Wages, Interest and Profits. New York: ISBN 1409952258.
Further reading
- Hollander, Jacob H. (1927). "John Bates Clark as an Economist". In Hollander, Jacob H. (ed.). Economic Essays Contributed in Honor of John Bates Clark. New York: The Macmillan Company. pp. 1–5.
- Messori, Luciano; Orsini, Raimondello (2016). "A Biographical Note on John Bates Clark". History of Economic Thought and Policy (2016/2): 132–140. ISSN 2280-188X.
- Messori, Luciano; Orsini, Raimondello (2019). "John Bates Clark: the first American marginalist as a social economist". History of Economic Thought and Policy (2018/2): 33–53. S2CID 171578122.
External links
- Works by John Bates Clark at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about John Bates Clark at Internet Archive
- Works by John Bates Clark, at JSTOR
- Works by John Bates Clark, at Hathi Trust
- New School: John Bates Clark, 1847–1938
- John Bates Clark at Find a Grave
- John Bates Clark (AC 1872) and Alden Hyde Clark (AC 1900) Family Papers at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections