The Alphabet of Economic Science. Part I. Elements of the Theory of Va

WICKSTEED (Philip H.)

The Alphabet of Economic Science. Part I. Elements of the Theory of Value. [all published].

First edition. Small 8vo. xiii, [3], 142, [2, publisher’s advertisements] pp., with ten folding plates. Original green cloth, spine and front cover lettered in black (neat contemporary ownership inscription to front free endpaper, faint offsetting to endpapers, otherwise internally clean and unmarked; some trivial rubbing to extremities, still a near fine, notably bright copy). Housed in a green cloth backed folding box. London, Macmillan and Co, 1888.

£1,750.00

Wicksteed’s first book, fundamentally a basic textbook of neoclassical economics ‘expounding in a clear and elementary way the virtues of a mathematically expressed marginal theory of value (in effect, the theory of demand)’ (ODNB).

It did much to popularise the adjective ‘marginal’ and the term ‘marginal analysis’ and received the approbation of both Edgeworth and Pareto. Batson calls it ‘a very valuable little work which aims at providing a thorough mathematical explanation of the fundamental propositions of the theory of value’ (p. 60). ‘As in his other books, Wicksteed disclaimed originality but showed himself to be, at the very least, a most careful and detailed thinker and expositor; in the case of the Alphabet a great many vivid examples are used to reinforce the reader’s firm grasp of marginal principles’ (New Palgrave).

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251339

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The Alphabet of Economic Science. Part I. Elements of the Theory of Value. [all published].

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