I have not had a chance to double check the thing, but Paul Samuelson in his article in S. Harris's collection The New Economics speaks of the price of the General Theory as of 5 shillings, not 15 shillings. This seems to make perhaps more sense, in that it would imply a price in GBP equivalent to $1.25 (i.e. a  price in dollars ($2) 37% higher than in pounds), if there were $5 to the pound. 15 shillings would have implied a price in GBP equivalent to $3.75, i.e. almost double the price in pounds than in dollars. SE&O.
Giancarlo de Vivo


> Il giorno 09/dic/2015, alle ore 00:41, Martin Tangora <[log in to unmask]> ha scritto:
> 
> Fifteen shillings is three quarters of a pound, and a pound in the 1930s was worth around $5, right?  If I am correct, then the book was quite a bit cheaper in the USA.  If I am wrong, please forgive me.
> 
> On 12/8/2015 12:37 PM, Roger Backhouse wrote:
>> 
>> Keynes controlled the prices of his books, as Donald Moggridge has explained. Many reviewers commented on the low price of the book. For example:
>> 
>> “By putting the book forward at such a price, Mr. Keynes is saying in effect: ‘This is no ordinary book. It is a book that has to be understood because it really matters. It makes an epoch in economic thought.’ And, in claiming this, Mr Keynes is without the smallest shadow of doubt, absolutely right.” New Statesman and Nation, 11, 15 February 1936, pp. 220-22. Quote taken from the reprint in “Keynes: Contemporary Responses to the General Theory” so I do not have a more exact page reference to the original.
>> 
>>   ( ... )
>> 
>> Reviewers generally considered 15 shillings to be an appropriate price for such a book. Hansen says that the US price was $2, suggesting it was more expensive in the US.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Martin C. Tangora
> tangora (at) uic.edu

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Giancarlo de Vivo

Dipartimento di Economia, Management, Istituzioni
Università di Napoli "Federico II"
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