Should-Read: John Stuart Mill (1848, 1871): Principles of Political Economy

Should-Read: The dominance of Malthusian factors and pressures in economists’ minds up until the late nineteenth century: John Stuart Mill (1848, 1871): Principles of Political Economy: “Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being…

…They have enabled a greater population to live the same life of drudgery and imprisonment, and an increased number of manufacturers and others to make fortunes. They have increased the comforts of the middle classes. But they have not yet begun to effect those great changes in human destiny, which it is in their nature and in their futurity to accomplish. Only when, in addition to just institutions, the increase of mankind shall be under the deliberate guidance of judicious foresight, can the conquests made from the powers of nature by the intellect and energy of scientific discoverers become the common property of the species, and the means of improving and elevating the universal lot…