ABSTRACT
In the Preface to the first edition of his Theory of Political Economy (hereafter TPE), W.Stanley Jevons noted that, in chapter IV, he had ‘alluded’ to the ‘cardinal difficulty with the whole theory’ (Jevons 1871:x; 1970:45). As Jevons did not make a habit of advertising the problems he recognised with his marginalist theory, the reference indicates that he considered the cardinal difficulty to be a matter of substantive concern. Because it was only alluded to, however, it was not clearly identified. The purpose of this chapter is twofold. The first is to argue that the difficulty consisted in explaining how an equilibrium is attained in a market period and that Jevons was unable to do so. It has since been observed that the failure of post-classical (or neo-classical) theory to provide ‘a rigorous basis for believing that equilibrium can be achieved or maintained if disturbed’ is a ‘major lacuna in economic analysis’ (Fisher 1987:26). While that lacuna was evident to Jevons, the second purpose of the chapter is to show how he obscured both the presence and the significance of the problem with a series of rhetorical devices in TPE.
