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Date:
Fri Mar 31 17:19:03 2006
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[log in to unmask] (J.I. Vorst)
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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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