Free eBooks > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic History > Principles Of Political Economy

Principles Of Political Economy

by John Stuart Mill

Reflecting his utilitarian social philosophy, Mill suggests that social improvements are always possible. He thus proposes modifying a purely laissez-faire system, advocating trade protectionism and regulation of employees' work hours for the benefit of domestic industries and workers' well-being. In such features he displays a leaning toward socialism.

For anyone with an interest in the history of economics or the history of ideas, Mill's landmark work still makes for stimulating reading.

About the Author
John Stuart Mill was born in London on May 20, 1806, the son of noted Scottish economist and philosopher James Mill, who held an influential post in the powerful East India Company. Mill's natural talent and physical stamina were put to the test at a very young age when he undertook a highly structured and individualized upbringing orchestrated by his father, who believed that the mind was a passive receptacle for human experience. His education and training were so intense that he was reading Greek at the age of three and doing independent writing at six.

Mill's education broadened considerably after 1823 when he entered the East India Company to commence his life's career as his father had done before him. He traveled, became politically involved, and in so doing moved away from the narrower sectarian attitudes in which he had been raised. His ideas and imagination were ignited by the Coleridge, Comte, and de Tocqueville. During his life, Mill wrote many influential works: A SYSTEM OF LOGIC (1843); PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY (1848); ON LIBERTY (1859); UTILITARIANISM (1863); EXAMINATION OF SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON'S PHILOSOPHY (1865); THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN (1869); and AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1873). As a defender of individual freedom and human rights, John Stuart Mill lives on as a nineteenth-century champion of social reform. He died on May 7, 1873.

Related Free eBooks

• Essays On Some Unsettled Questions Of Political Economy
• Statement Of Some New Principles On The Subject Of Political Economy
• Principles Of Political Economy, Vol Ii
• The Principles Of Political Economy And Taxation
• An Inquiry Into The Principles Of Political Economy
• The Theory Of Political Economy
• Principles of political economy : with some of their applications to social philosophy Volume 1
• Introductory Lectures On Political Economy
• Six Lectures On Political Economy
• Selected Essays On Political Economy
• Letters To Thomas Robert Malthus On Political Economy And Stagnation Of Commerce
• A Treatise On Political Economy
• The National System Of Political Economy
• Unto This Last, Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy
• The Common Sense Of Political Economy
• The Political Economy Of Participatory Economics
• The Postulates Of English Political Economy
• The Science Of Wealth: A Manual Of Political Economy
• Political Economy For The People
• Political Economy
• The Scope And Method Of Political Economy
• The Reason Of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy
• A History Of Political Economy
• Dialectical Economics: An Introduction To Marxist Political Economy
• Political Economy And The Rise Of Capitalism: A Reinterpretation
• The Character And Logical Method Of Political Economy
• Essays Designed To Elucidate The Science Of Political Economy
• Johns Hopkins's Notions On Political Economy
• Elements Of Political Economy
• Political Economy of Chinese Reform, Spring 2003
• Political Economy I: Theories of the State and the Economy, Fall 2005
• INTERDEPENDENCE, DISEQUILIBRIUM, AND GROWTH Reflections on the Political Economy of North-South Relations at the Turn of the Century
• Field Seminar in International Political Economy, Fall 2003
• Physics And Politics, or, Thoughts on the application of the principles of "natural selection" and "inheritance" to political society
• Political Economy of Development Projects: Targeting the Poor, Spring 2003

Related Tags