De Adam Smith a Karl Marx: na origem do marxismo econômico - Alain Alcouffe

Um economista historiador, Alain Alcouffe, de uma das listas acadêmicas que sigo, a Societies for the History of Economics, colocou uma questão interessante, vinda de um desconhecido articulista de meados do século XIX (1846) que conforma uma primeira crítica liberal à desigualdade existente entre capitalistas e trabalhadores, o que conforma o exato ambiente no qual se constitui o pensamento marxiano sobre a desigualdade inerente ao capitalismo.
O debate, no entanto, é sobre as diferenças entre riqueza e prosperidade, ou entre prosperidade e felicidade geral da população.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida 

National Wealth not to be confounded with national Prosperity

Societies for the History of Economics <SHOE@YORKU.CA>

Dear all,

The enigmatic last sentence of Adam Smith's obituary published by the Times (Saturday, 24 July 1790) stressed a distinction between "national wealth" on the one hand and "national prosperity" on the other hand  which can be compared with the contemporary contrast between the GDP and the Gross National Happiness.

        he [A. Smith] deserves the chief praise, or the chief blame, of propagating a system which tends to confound National Wealth with national Prosperity. 

I tried to trace the history of this distinction and found an anonymous article in the Tate's magazine about 'The law of primogeniture', in the Tait's Edinburgh Magazine edited by William Tait, Christian Isobel Johnstone (December 1846, pp. 797-801 (I have taken it from a google book easy to download).  It includes some developments about national prosperity versus national happiness. 

• It is a great and vulgar error to confound national prosperity and national happiness. The distribution rather than the amount of wealth among a people, contributes principally to general happiness. There can be no doubt that our country has added to its riches during the present century; but it is very clear that the well-being of the bulk of the community has not increased in a corresponding ratio. Between capital and labour there is a great gulf fixed, and while the one ascends in the social scale, the course of the other is one continued descent. To obtain the greatest happiness for the greatest number ought to be the object of political economy: but while the interests of the many are thus sacrificed to the few, we can hardly expect that the arrangements of society and the distribution of property should be in unison with the spirit of the age, and the march of intellect. 

No name of author is given and I wonder if anybody has an idea about this author.  I just cannot find who was this opponent to the law of primogeniture and proponent of  the "national happiness" through equality.

Thanks for any hint or simply guess

Best

AA

História econômica da China: melhor paper da lista - "John Stuart Mill and China"

Dear SHOE list,

The History of Economics Society is delighted to announce that this year's winner of the Best Conference Paper by a Young Scholar is Yue Xiao for her paper on John Stuart Mill and China: Peeking Behind China's Stationary State. The committee of Avi Cohen, Annie Cot, and Stefan Kolev found the paper original, well-structured, and elegantly written. In the paper, the author demonstrated her excellent knowledge of China's political, cultural, and economic history. The committee also wanted to share their delight that there are now young and talented historians of economic thought in China, which is excellent news for the discipline.

Yue Xiao completed her dissertation at the University of Illinois at Chicago with Joe Persky. She spent last year at the Duke Center for the History of Political Economy. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the School of Business Administration at Zhongnan University.

You can find her paper on the HES website at

https://historyofeconomics.org/best-conference-paper-by-a-young-scholar/

----------------------------
Marianne Johnson
Professor of Economics & Secretary of the History of Economics Society
College of Business
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Tendencia declinante do crescimento economico de longo termo dos paises desenvolvidos

Acabo de receber um importante estudo para a história econômica contemporânea, no âmbito da lista de história econômica à qual estou subscrito: Societies for the History of Economics (SHOE).
Sublinho a importância desse estudo, que de certo modo confirma estimativas feitas nas últimas décadas, todas elas confirmando uma tendência (secular?) à baixa das taxas de crescimento econômico no grupo dos países mais avançados (ou industrializados).
Transcrevo abaixo o anúncio do coordenador desse grupo de estudos da Universidade de Manitoba, no Canadá.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

[SHOE] Sixty-year decline in the growth rate of the industrialised countries

Our data group has been researching the long-run history of growth and came up with a result that surprised me to some extent, although theoretically it confirms Keynes’ views on the stationary state. It seems that the average growth rate of the industrialised countries has been declining, with only (historically) minor cyclic departures, since the early 1950s. The trend is strong and robust and is confirmed for a variety of measures of growth, and definitions of the industrialised countries.

I am intrigued that this appears to have been overlooked or at least, is not widely known or referred to. So I wonder if in fact, other research has come up with similar results. If anyone knows of such, do get in touch.

The paper is here: https://www.academia.edu/38192121/The_sixty-year_downward_trend_of_economic_growth_in_the_industrialised_countries_of_the_world

Readers may also be interested in the data repository which we are constructing for long-run macroeconomic data: https://github.com/axfreeman/Economic-History. If anyone shares our interest in curating historical macroeconomic data, or has data that they wish to be shared with a wider community, do please get in touch.

Regards

Alan

Research Director

Geopolitical Economy Research Group

(www.geopoliticaleconomy.org)

University of Manitoba