James K. Maitland, Earl Lauderdale, 1759-1838.
Scottish nobleman (he was the 8th Earl of Lauderdale), landlord and
dilettante. He was broadly sympathetic to Adam Smith
but adamantly opposed to the Classical
School. In particular, he disliked the labor theory of value,
preferring to see some role for utiltiy. He proposed that the
demand-and-supply mechanism should be used to determine long-run price. Ricardo
himself took pains to refute his thesis. Lauderdale can be considered a precursor of the Marginalist
Revolution.
Interestingly, Lauderdale was among the
first to propose that capital was a substitute, not a complement, of
labor. He was consequently among the first to have raised the
possibility of technological unemployment and his concerns prompted Ricardo
to write his famous chapter on machinery. Lauderdale was also an early
proponent of the underconsumption
thesis, i.e. that excess saving can be the cause of crisis, and defended the
Corn Laws. In money matters, he was a Bullionist
and a remarkably early proponent of functional
finance.
Major Works of Earl Lauderdale
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth, and into
the means and causes of its increase, 1804
- Thoughts on the Alarming State of the Circulation, 1805.
- A Letter on the Corn Laws, 1814.
- Three Letters to the Duke of Wellington, 1829.
Resources on Earl Lauderdale
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