Economics: An Alternative Text

328 Pages·1984·29.226 MB·English

by  Guy Routh (auth.)

ECONOMICS
AN ALTERNATIVE TEXT
By the same author
THE ORIGIN OF ECONOMIC IDEAS
OCCUPATION AND PAY IN GREAT BRITAIN, 1906-79
DEVELOPMENT PATHS IN AFRICA AND CHINA (co-editor)
THE TEACHING OF ECONOMICS IN AFRICA(co-editor)
ECONOMICS
AN ALTERNATIVE TEXT
Guy Routh
M
Palgrave Macmillan
© Guy Routh 1984
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission.
First published 1984 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-35300-4 ISBN 978-1-349-17348-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17348-8
Filmset by Vantage Photosetting Co. Ltd
Eastleigh and London
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Tables xi
1 Economic Viewpoints 1
1.1 What this book tries to do 1
1.2 How many worlds? 2
1.3 Background information 3
2 Pre-capitaHst Sodedes 4
2.1 As it was in the beginning 4
2.2 Hunters and gatherers 5
2.3 Herdsmen and cultivators 9
2.4 States and empires 10
2.5 Religion and magic 11
2.6 Written history 14
2.7 Other ancient societies 15
2.8 The feudal system 19
3 Merchant Capitalism 24
3.1 Feudalism to despotism 24
3.2 Immediate causes 25
3.3 The Reformation 28
3.4 Private enterprise 29
4 Triumph of the Bolll'leolsie 34
4.1 The absolute monarchs 34
4.2 The industrial revolution 37
4.3 Costs and benefits 40
4.4 Imperialism 44
5 Capitalist Systems and How They Work 54
6 The Profit-seekers 62
v
vi Contents
6.1 Growth of the giants 62
6.2 The nature of businesses 67
6.3 Business in action 85
6.4 Interpretations 103
us
7 Work and Pay
7.1 The nature of work 115
7.2 Classification 121
7.3 Job design and assessment 137
7.4 Pay 144
8 Consumen and Dlstributon 164
8.1 Perfect competition? 164
8.2 Household expenditure 165
8.3 The appetites of men ... and of women 168
8.4 Shopkeepers 183
8.5 The art of persuasion 197
8.6 Consumer protection: beware the unseen hand! 201
9 Money and Banking 207
9.1 Notes, coins, shells and oxen 207
9.2 The value of money 210
9.3 Banks 211
9.4 Other financial institutions 218
9.5 Lights that failed 226
9.6 Inflation 234
10 Government 2!1
10.1 Vadere sicut vult 251
10.2 The public purpose 253
10.3 The environment 260
10.4 Protecting investors from businesses, and
businesses from each other 262
10.5 The management of economies 264
11 SodaUsm 272
11.1 Preparations 272
11.2 First five-year plan 274
11.3 Developments in planning 276
11.4 Planning today 278
11.5 Achievements 281
Contents vii
U The Third World :ZBS
12.1 Problems of poverty 285
12.2 Causes 288
12.3 ThenatureofThird Worldcountries 291
12.4 Developmentprogrammes 293
12.5 Case studies 298
12.6 Secrets of success? 300
12.7 Aid 302
Condusion 304
Index 309
Acknowledgements
There is hardly anyone from whom a teacher of economics cannot
learn. My teachers have included all sorts of people in all sorts of
countries. I could not possibly list all those to whom I am indebted, but
present this book in acknowledgement.
There are some influences about which I must be more specific. An
important part of my education took place in my years of teaching at
the University of Sussex. There are no departments at Sussex, only
schools of study, in which great effort has been made to remove
disciplinary boundaries. Thus I have taken classes together with
anthropologists, historians, psychologists and others: an intensive and
often strenuous way of extending my own intellectual boundaries.
Thus I have been led, for example, to explore African and Asian
cultures, some of which are vanishing, while others withstand the
European and North American impact and exert counter-influences
on Europe and North America.
I was helped in my writing by a six-months' fellowship from the
Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, a venue
that manages to combine the studious calm of a monastery with the
strenuous endeavour of a railway station. There I could work in
solitary peace or consult with development specialists venturing into
distant fields or returning from them.
Assisted by a grant from the University of Sussex, I studied federal
institutions in the United States under whose control and guidance
American business operates. I am grateful for the help given in the
preparation of my programme by Peter Carr, Labour Counsellor at the
British Embassy in Washington, and Rosetta E. Worley and Lorraine
D. Turner of the Division of Professional and Governmental Ex
change of the US Department of Labor.
There is now a sizeable battalion of economists working on the
reform of economics, by whose endeavours I have been encouraged
and sustained. One manifestation of this has been the volume edited by
Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol, The Crisis in Economic Theory (New
York: Basic Books, 1981). What may be viewed as a companion
ix
X Acknowledgements
volume is being produced in the United Kingdom as a result of a
conference held at New College, Oxford, in December 1982. The
editor is Peter Wiles of the London School of Economics (In Search of
a Better Economics, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, forthcoming). I hope that
my book may be of some help in the search.
It is usual for a writer of books to mention members of the family in
acknowledgement of the sufferings they endure as a result of his
monomania. My wife and youngest son (last of the family to remain at
home) have long since developed immunity and have used their talents
to improve the product. They cannot be blamed for its defects, not all
of which I have been modest enough to eliminate, but their criticisms,
delivered without fear, favour or prejudice, have often given me pause
and made me think again.
GUY ROUTH