ABSTRACT
Thomas Hodgskin’s blend of classical liberalism was predicated on the idea that the removals of restraints and hindrances on free exchange will lead to greater prosperity. Such greater prosperity was to benefit first and foremost the working classes. Hodgskin thought we could rely on people’s ingenuity and creativity. His version of political economy stood out because, on the normative side, he preached strict non-intervention. For him, political economy was a science that studies “the natural laws that govern the production and distribution of wealth.” In Hodgskin’s Popular Political Economy there is no shortage of remarks that sound very “Smithian”—about the hubris of the decision makers and the inevitable nefarious effects of public policies conceived in ignorance of natural laws. Hodgskin seems to believe that know-how and formal knowledge stand in a sort of continuum. In 1823, as editor of The Chemist, he wrote a series of articles about the history of chemistry.
