An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy

An international team of scholars has collaborated on this reprinting of the first edition of James Steuart’s Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy, planned by the University of Catania to coincide with the three hundredth anniversary of his birth. The book represents a milestone in the history of heterodox economic thought, once obscured by the prestige which the triumphant atmosphere of European liberalism was soon to accord Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, but which returns to our time on a wave of keynesian experience, and the impotence of the dominant economic theory to regulate the crises of contemporary capitalism. The Inquiry offers a radically different approach to economic science, an extraordinary depiction of the historical genesis of modern European societies, an original monetary account of their economies, and a detailed analysis of the incapacity of the market to regulate by itself the vibrations which disturb its equilibrium. In the face of liberal orthodoxy on the light state, Steuart qualifies his own approach, arguing for the indispensable role of political power and the necessity for adequate industrial, fiscal and monetary policies to produce that cohesion and internal mobility which only the full employment of men – an outcome of correct policies – can ensure for modern societies.