ABSTRACT
The socialist critique of the competitive, market economy as it existed in early nineteenth century Britain was both powerful and perceptive. It made clear the sham nature of the supposedly free bargains struck in the labour market and attacked as myth the idea that labour was a free economic agent rationally striving to maximise its utility. The reality, as socialist writers saw it, was that grinding material necessity precluded the exercise of economic rationality. In the context of the labour market the ‘homo economicus’ of classical economics was no more than a convenient apologetic myth. Given its asymmetry, given the skewed distribution of the economic power wielded in the market it inevitably dispensed rewards in a manner manifestly unjust and unpredictable. From this followed the misallocation of resources with respect to the real needs of the nation and from the exploitative crucible of the market too stemmed that underconsumption which prevented the full utilisation of the productive resources available to the nation. Finally there was the artificial and oscillating character of the values which the market bestowed which added further to the insecurity, injustice and uncertainty experienced by the labouring classes.
