ABSTRACT
We shall start our model-building by considering the operations of an extremely simple economy in which the two original factors of production, land and labour, are used directly to produce various goods for individual consumption and in which the underlying conditions are unchanging so that a stationary self-perpetuating equilibrium state is reached. The present volume is devoted to the examination of such a society. Such a society is, of course, horribly unrealistic. Nevertheless it is claimed that this investigation is useful on three counts. First, it enables one to isolate and thus examine precisely and carefully certain relationships of first-rate importance of a kind which are at work in the real world. Second, it provides a training in certain tools of analysis which will prove of great use when the strict assumptions of this volume are relaxed and models are made more realistic. Third, the model can provide an example of the basic clash between what is desirable in society on efficiency grounds and what is desirable on distributional grounds; and it provides, therefore, a good introduction to a wide range of problems concerned with the choice of economic policy.
