The market and the mission of the political economists

Economists are often reproached for their reductionism, leading to a partial and non-social view of economic phenomena. Such criticism also applies to their view of markets, usually separating the price system and the relational system. The story told in this book, however, shows that political economists were eager to debate the relationship between the price system and the relational system. Trying to understand how markets in commercial society might improve human life and growth, they took the inherent logic of the price system as part of the puzzle of how a setting of self-interest, specialisation, competition and private property conducive to growth of wealth could also bring trust, cohesion and generosity. Political economists were on a mission.