ABSTRACT
The story of the academic institutionalization of economics in England should not be confused with the more general issue of the development and dissemination of economic thought. Long before English universities came round to recognizing the claims of economics as an academic discipline, economic doctrines of one sort or another, and at various levels of theoretical sophistication, had become an integral part of popular perceptions of current reality. So-called ‘popular economics’ may partly have originated with the writings and activities of the early socialists and the Owenites.1 But by around the middle of the century, more liberal concepts of the economic dimensions of social activity appear to have prevailed throughout society.
