ABSTRACT
The two decades following the publication of John Stuart Mill’s work were comparatively sterile as far as the development of economic analysis is concerned. The 1850s and 1860s were relatively prosperous decades for the British economy, but continued industrialization and the spread of the factory system imposed hardships on the working classes. Yet, orthodox economic thinking, with its ideological bias in favor of the free market system dominated throughout the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, there were also important voices of dissent that flourished alongside the classical tradition. The English historical school (like its German counterpart) challenged the economic laws that the classical school claimed to have established using the deductive method; at the same time, members of the English socialist movement were mounting programs to reform the capitalist system to alleviate the adverse effects that the system imposed on wage-workers.
