ABSTRACT
The attempts during the early 1880s of Oxford graduates and young dons to formulate an ideologically acceptable alternative to orthodox liberalism in general and to classical economics in particular may be seen as representative of a wider prevalent concern amongst England’s young intelligentsia resulting in the development of new liberalism. The economic aspect of this new spirit of reformism has been characterized by Donald Winch in Economics and Policy (London, 1969) as revolving around the question: ‘How was it that an economic system, which had generated economic progress and enhanced the comfort and security of the middle classes had failed so conspicuously to improve the lot of many, perhaps even the majority?’ In many instances Oxford had set the tone, and, as in the aftermath of Toynbee’s death, the timing of many developments associated with the emergence of new liberalism. But the interest in current economics as a means of dealing with this new version of the condition of England question was not uniquely Oxonian.
