Lawyers and Principles of Economics

Main source: Salvador Trinxet Llorca, “Selected writings about lawyers”

In his huge “Principles of Economics”Alfred Marshall mentioned several times the role of lawyers:

Appendix A
“But though the Romans contributed but little directly to the progress of economic science, yet indirectly they exerted a profound influence over it, for good and evil, by laying the foundations of modern jurisprudence. What philosophic thought there was in Rome was chiefly Stoic; and most of the great Roman Stoics were of Oriental origin. Their philosophy when transplanted to Rome developed a great practical power without losing its intensity of feeling; and in spite of its severity, it had in it much that is kindred to the suggestions of modern social science. Most of the great lawyers of the Empire were among its adherents, and thus it set the tone of the later Roman Law, and through it of all modern European Law. Now the strength of the Roman State had caused State rights to extinguish those of the Clan and the Tribe in Rome at an earlier stage than in Greece. But many of the primitive Aryan habits of thought as to property lingered on for a long while even in Rome. Great as was the power of the head of the family over its members, the property which he controlled was for a long time regarded as vested in him as the representative of the family rather than as an individual. But when Rome had become imperial, her lawyers became the ultimate interpreters of the Legal Rights of many nations: and under Stoic influence they set themselves to discover the fundamental Laws of Nature, which they believed to lie in concealment at the foundation of all particular codes. This search for the universal, as opposed to the accidental elements of justice, acted as a powerful solvent on rights of common holding, for which no other reason than that of local usage could be given. The later Roman Law therefore gradually but steadily enlarged the sphere of contract; gave it greater precision, greater elasticity, and greater strength. At last almost all social arrangements had come under its dominion; the property of the individual was clearly marked out, and he could deal with it as he pleased. From the breadth and nobility of the Stoic character modern lawyers have inherited a high standard of duty: and from its austere self-determination they have derived a tendency to define sharply individual rights in property. And therefore to Roman and especially Stoic influence we may trace indirectly much of the good and evil of our present economic system: on the one hand much of the untrammelled vigour of the individual in managing his own affairs; and on the other not a little harsh wrong done under the cover of rights established by a system of law, which has held its ground because its main principles are wise and just.”

Appendix B:
“They were aware that the inhabitants of other countries had peculiarities of their own that deserved study; but they seemed to regard such differences as superficial and sure to be removed, as soon as other nations had got to know that better way which Englishmen were ready to teach them. The same bent of mind that led our lawyers to impose English civil law on the Hindoos, led our economists to work out their theories on the tacit supposition that the world was made up of city men. And though this did little harm so long as they were treating of money and foreign trade, it led them astray as to the relations between the different industrial classes. It caused them to speak of labour as a commodity without staying to throw themselves into the point of view of the workman; and without dwelling upon the allowances to be made for his human passions, his instincts and habits, his sympathies and antipathies, his class jealousies and class adhesiveness, his want of knowledge and of the opportunities for free and vigorous action. They therefore attributed to the forces of supply and demand a much more mechanical and regular action than is to be found in real life: and they laid down laws with regard to profits and wages that did not really hold even for England in their own time.”

He also wrote: “In the two preceding centuries writers on economic questions had continually appealed to Nature; each disputant claiming that his scheme was more natural than that of others, and the philosophers of the eighteenth century, some of whom exercised a great influence on economics, were wont to find the standard of right in conformity to Nature. In particular Locke anticipated much of the work of the French economists in the general tone of his appeals to Nature, and in some important details of his theory. But Quesnay, and the other French economists who worked with him, were drawn to the pursuit of natural laws of social life by several forces in addition to those which were at work in England.
The luxury of the French court, and the privileges of the upper classes which were ruining France, showed the worst side of an artificial civilization, and made thoughtful men yearn for a return to a more natural state of society. The lawyers, among whom much of the best mental and moral strength of the country was to be found, were full of the Law of Nature which had been developed by the Stoic lawyers of the later Roman Empire, and as the century wore on, the sentimental admiration for the “natural”life of the American Indians, which Rousseau had kindled into flame, began to influence the economists. Before long they were called Physiocrats or adherents of the rule of Nature; this name being derived from the title of Dupont de Nemours’ Physiocratie ou Constitution Naturelle du Gouvernement le plus avantageux au Genre Humain published in 1768. It may be mentioned that their enthusiasm for agriculture and for the naturalness and simplicity of rural life was in part derived from their Stoic masters”

He also wrote: “NIt has already been observed that List overlooked the tendency of modern inter-communication to make the development of different nations synchronize. His patriotic fervour perverted in many ways his scientific judgment: but Germans listened eagerly to his argument that every country had to go through the same stages of development that England had gone through, and that she had protected her manufacturers when she was in transition from the agricultural to the manufacturing stage. He had a genuine desire for truth; his method was in harmony with the comparative method of inquiry which is being pursued with vigour by all classes of students in Germany, but especially by her historians and lawyers; and the direct and indirect influence of his thought has been very great. His Outlines of a New System of Political Economy appeared in Philadelphia in 1827, and his Das nationale System der Politischen Œkonomie in 1840. It is a disputed point whether Carey owed much to List; see Miss Hirst’s Life of List, ch. IV.”

Preface
Book I. Preliminary Survey.
I.I Introduction.
I.II The Substance of Economics.
I.III Economic Generalizations or Laws.
I.IV The Order and Aims of Economic Studies.
Book II. Some Fundamental Notions.
II.I Introductory.
II.II Wealth.
II.III Production. Consumption. Labour. Necessaries.
II.IV Income. Capital.
Book III. On Wants and Their Satisfaction.
III.I Introductory.
III.II Wants In Relation To Activities.
III.III Gradations Of Consumers’ Demand.
III.IV The Elasticity of Wants.
III.V Choice Between Different Uses of the Same Thing. Immediate and Deferred Uses.
III.VI Value and Utility.
Book IV. The Agents of Production. Land, Labour, Capital and Organization.
IV.I Introductory.
IV.II The Fertility of Land.
IV.III The Fertility of Land, Continued. The Tendency To Diminishing Return.
IV.IV The Growth of Population.
IV.V The Health and Strength of the Population.
IV.VI Industrial Training.
IV.VII The Growth of Wealth.
IV.VIII Industrial Organization.
IV.IX Industrial Organization, Continued. Division of Labour. The Influence of Machinery.
IV.X Industrial Organization, Continued. The Concentration of Specialized Industries in Particular Localities.
IV.XI Industrial Organization, Continued. Production on a Large Scale.
IV.XII Industrial Organization, Continued. Business Management.
IV.XIII Conclusion. Correlation of the Tendencies To Increasing and To Diminishing Return.
Book V. General Relations of Demand, Supply, and Value.
V.I Introductory. On Markets.
V.II Temporary Equilibrium of Demand and Supply.
V.III Equilibrium of Normal Demand and Supply.
V.IV The Investment and Distribution of Resources.
V.V Equilibrium of Normal Demand and Supply, Continued, With Reference To Long and Short Periods.
V.VI Joint and Composite Demand. Joint and Composite Supply.
V.VII Prime and Total Cost in Relation To Joint Products. Cost of Marketing. Insurance Against Risk. Cost of Reproduction.
V.VIII Marginal Costs in Relation To Values. General Principles.
V.IX Marginal Costs in Relation To Values. General Principles, Continued.
V.X Marginal Costs in Relation To Agricultural Values.
V.XI Marginal Costs in Relation To Urban Values.
V.XII Equilibrium of Normal Demand and Supply, Continued, With Reference To the Law of Increasing Return.
V.XIII Theory of Changes of Normal Demand and Supply in Relation To the Doctrine of Maximum Satisfaction.
V.XIV The Theory of Monopolies.
V.XV Summary of the General Theory of Equilibrium of Demand and Supply.
Book VI. The Distribution of National Income.
VI.I Preliminary Survey of Distribution.
VI.II Preliminary Survey of Distribution, Continued.
VI.III Earnings of Labour.
VI.IV Earnings of Labour, Continued.
VI.V Earnings of Labour, Continued.
VI.VI Interest of Capital.
VI.VII Profits of Capital and Business Power.
VI.VIII Profits of Capital and Business Power, Continued.
VI.IX Rent of Land.
VI.X Land Tenure.
VI.XI General View of Distribution.
VI.XII General Influences of Economic Progress.
VI.XIII Progress in Relation To Standards of Life.
Appendices.
Appendix A The Growth of Free Industry and Enterprise.
Appendix B The Growth of Economic Science.
Appendix C The Scope and Method of Economics.
Appendix D Uses of Abstract Reasoning in Economics.
Appendix E Definitions of Capital.
Appendix F Barter.
Appendix G The Incidence of Local Rates, With Some Suggestions As To Policy.
Appendix H Limitations of the Use of Statical Assumptions in Regard To Increasing Return.
Appendix I Ricardo’s Theory of Value.
Appendix J The Doctrine of the Wages-Fund.
Appendix K Certain Kinds of Surplus.
Appendix L Ricardo’s Doctrine As To Taxes and Improvements in Agriculture.

Author: international

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