John Elliot Cairnes, 1823-1875

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Portrait of J.E. Cairnes

Educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Cairnes held the Whately Chair at Dublin from 1856 until 1861. He subsequently taught at Queen's College Galway until 1866, when he was appointed professor of political economy at University College London.

A ardent disciple of John Stuart Mill, Cairnes is often regarded as "the last of the Classical economists". It was upon his shoulders that fell the responsibility of defending the Classical Ricardian doctrine in its waning years of 1869-75 -- against Thornton, against Ruskin, against Cliffe-Leslie and, finally, against Jevons and the Marginalist Revolution.

Cairnes's most famous book -- the Whately lectures of 1857 -- was an attempt to outline the future research program for Classical economics. Decades later, in 1874, Cairnes offered the feeble, last gasp of Classical doctrine, with wages fund embarrassingly incorporated and Jevons new theory reluctantly reviewed.

Cairnes's shining hour was his widely-discussed 1862 treatise Slave Power. Cairnes analyzed the consequences of slavery for economic development, in particular how it speeded up soil erosion, discouraged the introduction of technical innovations and stifled commerce and enterprise more generally. Written during the American Civil War, Cairnes warned British policymakers to think twice about backing the economically-unviable Confederacy.

Major Works of John E. Cairnes

Resources on John Elliot Cairnes


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