ABSTRACT
This essay concerns the disputed authorship of the article ‘Spence on Commerce’—William Spence’s Britain Independent of Commerce (third edition, 1807)—in the Edinburgh Review (No. XXII, January 1808, 42948). Fetter (1953:246) maintained that the article was ‘probably’ by Malthus; subsequently, he attributed it to Malthus without qualification (Fetter 1957:10). Henderson’s analysis of ‘Malthus and the Edinburgh Review takes for granted that Malthus was the reviewer (Henderson 1984:118-23); so does Fontana (1985:128); and the item appears under Malthus in Waterman’s bibliography (1991:279).
