----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Published by EH.NET (June 2002) Andrea Finkelstein, _Harmony and the Balance: An Intellectual History of Seventeenth- Century English Economic Thought_. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. x + 381 pp. $49.50 (cloth), ISBN: 0-472-11143-4. Reviewed for EH.NET by Edward J. Harpham, School of Social Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas. <[log in to unmask]> Historians of seventeenth-century economic thought in England find themselves trapped in a rather curious dilemma. On the one hand, most are interested in understanding the intellectual origins of a modern economic view of the world. Essentially this means investigating the historical development of the tools of modern economic analysis. Does a particular writer grasp some aspect of marginal utility theory or the quantity theory of money? What are the limits to a particular theorist's view of economic problems? Following the lead of Joseph Schumpeter, students adopting this perspective often turn the history of economic ideas into a history of the tools of economic analysis. On the other hand, many want to place economic ideas in the seventeenth century in one of a variety of contexts. One context, for example, involves the specific historical context out of which specific economic ideas emerge. How did the economic and political events of the day such as banking or trade crises shape the economic ideas of a particular writer? What special interests or biases might influence the development of one set of ideas rather than another? Here the history of economic thought is turned into one dimension of a broader sociology of knowledge. Barry Supple's _Commercial Crisis and Change in England, 1600-1642_ (1959) is perhaps the classic example of such an approach. A second contextual approach tries to grasp economic ideas in terms of he general intellectual environment of the times. For example, how do the assumptions of a modern scientific or an individualistic worldview affect the way economic theorists conceptualize economic problems? Joyce Appleby's _Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth Century England_ (1978) is a notable contribution to this genre. Finally, there is the biographical context. English economic writers in the seventeenth century came from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from merchants seeking special privileges to intellectuals committed to a particular political agenda to officials trying to justify governmental policy. Moreover, their ideas were expressed in a number of different genres rather than a consistent scientific literature. Biographic context aims to help explain why certain economic ideas were developed at particular points in time, and what their conceptual limitations might be. Karen Vaughn's _John Locke, Economist and Social Scientist_ (1980) is an excellent example of this approach. The problem facing the historian of economic thought is how to integrate the study of the tools and concepts of modern economic analysis with one or all of these contextual approaches. Andrea Finkelstein's strategy echoes that of E.A.J. Johnson's _Predecessors of Adam Smith_ (1937) and William Letwin's _The Origins of Scientific Economics_ (1963) in many ways. First, she identifies a number of key contributors to the century's economic debates. For Johnson, these figures were Gerard de Malynes, Edward Misselden, Thomas Mun, William Petty, and Nehemiah Grew. For Letwin, they were Josiah Child, Nicholas Barbon, John Collins, William Petty, John Locke, and Dudley North. Finkelstein splits the difference between the two, looking at Malynes, Misselden and Mun in Part I, at Petty, Child and Locke in Part II, and at North, Barbon, and Davenant in part III. She is unapologetic in her selection, noting that these figures are generally recognized by historians of conomic thought as the best that the century had to offer. Second, she organizes her study of each trio of theorists around a few themes. Part I seeks to explain how the balance of trade theory articulated by Malynes, Misselden and Mun provided a new perspective for viewing the self-interested behavior and the market alongside a more traditional organic view of society as a harmonious whole. Many of the tensions and contradictions in their thought must be understood in terms of the "logical impasse" created by the attempt to accommodate balance of trade theory into a societal model of a harmonious universe. Part II's analysis of Petty, Child, and Locke is held together by the idea that new mechanical models of society based on the work of Harvey, Descartes, and Hobbes displaced the old organic model of the body politic sometime during the middle decades of the seventeenth century. This new approach which stressed the uniformity of human behavior and the idea that individuals acted from a pleasure-pain calculus became the philosophical foundation of economic thought for two new models of economic life: a circulatory model and a national accounting model. The central theme of part III is balance. Essentially what Finkelstein appears to mean here is that each theorist sought to integrate some new notion of balance into the new models of polity and economy developed by earlier thinkers in the century. Third, Finkelstein spends considerable time providing a biographical background to each of the writers. Each substantive chapter begins with an overview of the writer's life and career and an analysis of the controversies that shaped his economic writings. Finally, most chapters conclude with an in-depth discussion of the key economic ideas that are found in a particular writer's work, such as money, demand, value, circulation and the like. There is much to be learned from Finkelstein's book. It is hard to argue with her choice of figures. All but on is commonly recognized as a leading contributor to economic thought in the century. The choice of Davenant may surprise some, being a figure largely ignored in standard histories of modern economic thought. His contributions to the economic and political controversies of the day are undeniable and his inclusion may help to broaden most economists' understanding of early founders of their discipline.The biographical analysis of these figures is excellent, moving beyond that of predecessors like Johnson and Letwin. Finkelstein takes seriously the idea that we must understand the context in which the author is writing if we are to grasp the ideas developed by an author. Similarly her analysis of various modern analytical ideas developed by each of the theorists is thoughtful and creative, while not being overly critical. Finkelstein is sensitive to the idea that these writers might have something to teach modern economists about the way we have come to think about economic issues and problems. The problem with the book resides in the larger themes that Finkelstein tries to use to make the book a unified whole. Some of these themes work well. For example, the idea that the balance of trade theory of Malynes, Misselden and Mun may have introduced an irreconcilable tension into an organic view of the body politic is intriguing. Finkelstein does a pretty good job arguing her case in Part I. But the unifying themes of mechanism and balance in Part II and III are less well developed and need a more careful elaboration. There is no doubt that the mechanistic universe of Harvey, Descartes, and Hobbes played a major role in shaping the intellectual climate of seventeenth-century England. But Finkelstein's contention that it may be a unifying feature tying together the economic thought of Petty, Child, and Locke is suggestive at best. Her rich discussion of each thinker's work seems to belie the fact that they are taken from a common cloth. Similar problems haut the analysis of the idea of balance in Part III. Davenant's civic humanist concerns over balance in a commercial society seem to be a far cry from the concerns of North or Barbon. Throughout Part III, it is often difficult to understand what is being balanced or what is balancing what. As in Part II, some of the grand themes of the book tend to get in the way of the rather intriguing discussions of each individual thinker Other problems exist with Finkelstein's attempt to place an individual's economic ideas into larger intellectual contexts like Baconian authoritarianism, millenarianism, civic humanism, natural law theory, or theories of Aristotelian harmony. While readily using these terms to situate the economic ideas of seventeenth-century England, Finkelstein does not always carefully explain the complexity and mixed meanings built into these concepts. Nor does she ever adequately explain why some authors appealed to one set of ideas while others appealed to another. Was an economic way of thinking about the world trapped in a variety of competing perspectives or was it integrally connected to them? One shouldn't be too critical of Finkelstein's effort to bring some order to a myriad of economic arguments developed by thinkers in the seventeenth century. Finkelstein's study reminds us how complex intellectual discourse was in the early modern era and why we should be wary of one-size-fits-all interpretations. Faults aside, Finkelstein has presented us with an insightful and, at times, thought-provoking book on economic ideas in seventeenth-century England. It is a good starting point for anyone interested in gaining a deeper insight into the controversies and ideas that shaped early modern economic thinking. Edward J. Harpham has published numerous articles in the history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political and economic thought. He is the editor of _John Locke's Two Treatises of Government: New Interpretations_ (1992). Cpyright (c) 2002 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, please contact the EH.Net Administrator ([log in to unmask]; Telephone: 513- 529-2850; Fax: 513-529-3308). Published by EH.Net (June 2002). All EH.Net reviews are archived at http://www.eh.net/BookReview ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]