2025/01/30 by Colín Danby · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Economic Theory and Institutions #Economic Theory and Policy #Economic theories and models
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1479244324000295
openalex publication_date 2025/01/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Alfred Marshall used an evolutionary theory of race to ground individual psychology and explain economic behavior. The psychological theory, drawn from Herbert Spencer, explained British and US industrial leadership by the innate excellences of Anglo-Saxon workers and entrepreneurs, without invoking colonialism or other uses of state power. It also asserted the internal solidarity of Anglo-Saxons. Because they were inclined to help each other, argued Marshall, Anglo-Saxons could handle laissez-faire. The paper situates Marshall in conversation with Anglican liberals like F. D. Maurice, and argues that a shared racial consciousness worked as a common ground among Coleridgean Romantics and radicals like Mill and Spencer who needed a category of the nation that did not rely on the state.