ABSTRACT
The post-1870 period saw the gradual spread and strengthening of marginal analysis within economics; to recognize this is neither to imagine that marginalism swept the board overnight nor to commit oneself to any strong view about the existence or otherwise of a ‘marginalist revolution’ in economics. That same period witnessed the growth of socialist ideas and movements and, given the importance of economic issues to socialists, it is hardly surprising that the marginalist approach to economics was widely discussed by them. Equally, of course, a number of marginalist economists discussed certain socialist ideas, not least the economic theories stemming from Marx. Indeed some socialists (often Marxist socialists) were prone to talk of socialism versus marginalism; a number of examples will emerge from the following chapters. Overall, however, those chapters will show why our title – socialism and marginalism – is an appropriate one, for the mutual relationships involved were complex, sometimes of conflict and sometimes of complementarity.
