Logo

The present study takes issue with this argument. In the chapters which follow we shall argue not only that classical political economy prior to Ricardo did not represent the interests of industrial capitalists but also that the classical political economists up to and including Smith were strongly critical of the values and practices associated with merchants and manufacturers. Much as they may have approved of certain important economic effects of division of labour and market exchange, the greatest classical economists did not seek to ground political life in the activities of self-seeking individuals. Nor did they seek to advance a justification for industrial capitalism. On the contrary, the pre-Ricardian economists betrayed a definite bias in favour of the agrarian, not commercial or industrial, classes and profound fear that the commercial spirit of their age might undermine the agrarian foundations of society and corrupt political life by replacing the classical goal of a state operating according to public interest and public virtue with a polity ravaged by the pursuit of private interest.