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From:
[log in to unmask] (J.I. Vorst)
Date:
Fri Mar 31 17:18:43 2006
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----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 
With apologies; I am not an expert in the history of economic thought. 
Maybe the following  is of some interest. 
 
Bailey: "It is only when objects are considered together as subjects of preference or
exchange, that the specific feeling of value can arise, When they are so considered, our
esteem for one object, or our wish to possess it, may be  equal to, or greater, or less
than our esteem for another: it may, for instance  be doubly as great, or, in other words,
we would give one of the former  for two of the latter. (...)  This relation can be
denoted only by quantity.  The value of A is expressed by the quantity of B for which it
will exchange," (Critical Dissertation etc. p.2, as quoted on pp. 158 and 167-168 in
volume 2 of J.E. Vleeschhouwer's  Economische Rekenvormen (freely: Economic Calculus), a
two-volume dissertation of some 570 pages.
 
JEV then points (pp. 185-186) to Bailey, CD p. 39, that this can be 
generalised, enabling us to "speak of  money-value, corn-value, 
cloth-value, according to the commodity with which it is compared." V. 
refers to several other authors, including Marx (Surplus Value III), making 
the same observation several times (apparently not taking away from his 
Labour Theory of Value, as his adherents insist rightly or wrongly). 
 
JEV writes as one of his 61 "theses" accompanying his dissertation (I think 
that the Netherlands School of Economics required 12 in those days) "Samuel 
Bailey anticipated (in) 1825 the criticism which would later be levied 
against Marx's value and price theory. This is also a factor that helps 
explain Marx's unkind qualification of Bailey." (my translation) 
 
Vleeschhouwer was the best-read Dutch economist of the mid-20th century. He 
worked  briefly with Joseph Schumpeter in Vienna and tried to convince the 
governors of the Netherlands School of Economics (then still called the 
Nederlandsche Handelshoogeschool or Netherlands Commercial Academy) to 
bring JS to Rotterdam. Alas (according to  JEV), the Port Barons running 
the school (and the city)  found this foreigner wanting, possibly because 
of his Roman Catholic faith. 
 
JEV never tried to obtain a professorate (Rotterdam did have a few other 
Jews, so that would not have been a factor). After the war he coordinated 
the rebuilding of the Rotterdam port into the largest/busiest  of the 
world. A family friend of my parents, he was a frequent visitor to our home 
and I spent many a Saturday (Shabbath) afternoon in his study listening to 
his Jewish and worldly wisdom. 
 
 
J.I.  Vorst 
 
 
P.S. 
Vleeschhouwer headlines his discussion of the importance of terminology 
with a quote from Bailey 1825: "... [A] science which owes half of its 
difficulties to the laxity and ambiguity of language." This warning should 
be on every course outline and syllabus. 
 
   
 
 
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