----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Barkley, Thanks for your comment and the information that Streissler concedes Cournot's priority. Having now skimmed Streissler's paper, I see he is quite clear on this; Cournot was first, Rau second in 1841. His comment that Cournot posits the demand curve without explanation, whereas Rau derives is interesting and seems fair. Streissler also quotes from Marshall's letter to J.B. Clark (1900) saying he fancied he'd read Cournot in 1868, but he was sure he read Cournot before von Thunen. In the same letter, Marshall writes "...I saw Rau's work before I saw Jenkin's paper in the Recess studies published in 1870; but even before that I had learnt from Cournot and von Thunen." In a later letter to L.C. Colson Marshall writes "As I have said in my original Preface, I owed much to the mental discipline afforded by Cournot; but the one book that really guided me was written by...vonThunen." [See J.K. Whitaker, Early Economic Writings of Alfred Marshall, Vol.I, p.38;Vol. II, p.240 and Guillbaud's ninth edition of Marshall, Vol.2 , pp. 7-8.] So your statement that "Marshall may well have also read Cournot..." considerably understates the case. Mike Lynch ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]