My apologies to all those who feel their time has been wasted on this  issue.   
 One hopes that subscribers to a history of thought list will find  the   
transmission of ideas, and words/phrases used to convey those ideas,  inherently   
interesting.  But that is just a hope.  
   
As for the "Does it really matter?" question raised by Bruce Caldwell, I    
cannot pretend to have a definitive answer.  In defense of intellectual  history,   
though, it would seem that issues like this one (the origins of SO)  might,   
at the very least, give interested scholars a better idea about who, and  what,   
they should be reading.  Also, the question of social sciences  (Mill) vs.   
physical sciences (Polanyi) influence on SO thought might be an  interesting one   
for economists trying to develop (borrow?) scientific  models for their own   
discipline.  
   
Jack Bladel