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The phrase itself is quoted by Boulding in his famous "After Samuelson, Who Needs Adam
Smith?" HOPE, vol. 3 (1971), p. 229, but Boulding himself admits with regret that he could
not track down the source.  For illustration, there is Pigou's supposed reply to a request
to review Hannah Sewall's Theory of Value before Adam Smith (quoted, without citation, on
p. 1 of Blaug's Economic Theory in Retrospect), "These antiquarian researches have no
great attraction for one who finds it difficult enough to read what is now thought on
economic problems, without spending time on studying confessedly inadequate solutions that
were offered centuries ago." I typically recall that quote for my students as an amusing
irony, both because Pigou himself could now be said to be the object of those "antiquarian
researches" and because I ask my students to read a couple of chapters from Sewall's book.
Pigou missed a useful treatment!
 
Glenn Hueckel 
 
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