ABSTRACT
His greatest theoretical work, and the source of most of this chapter, is his Principles of Economics, published in 1890. The success of this treatise was so great that it almost totally eclipsed works of lesser stature for many decades after. In England, as well as the United States, the study of economics became, perforce, the study of Marshall's Principles. It is generally agreed that it was unfortunate that he devoted so much time to its original formulation that publication was delayed until 1890, and that he labored over seven revisions, none of them substantive, instead of turning his attention to other work. His other publications are Industry and Trade (1919), which is a historical study of the development of industry, and has little analysis; Money, Credit and Commerce (1923); and a brief book he co-authored before the Principles with his wife, Mary Paley Marshall, in addition to numerous occasional papers and lectures. 3
Principles ofeconomics
Objectives Marshall begins the Principles of Economics with the observation that 'political economy or economics is the study of mankind in the ordinary business oflife; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and use
of the material requisites of well-being.'4 Unlike Nassau Senior, therefore, he intends to study economics as a science of human behavior rather than as a science of wealth.
