: Raymond Makewell
: Science of Economics
: Shepheard Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd
: 9780856833960
: 1
: CHF 4.40
:
: Wirtschaft
: English
: 398
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Leon MacLaren (1910-1994) was a barrister, politician, philosopher and the founder of the School of Economic Science. He considered the true goal of Economics to be the discovery of the conditions which allow every individual to find a fulfilling life. In his view, science was a study of laws that exist in nature, whilst economics was a study of the humanities, with the interaction of human nature and the natural universe at its heart. MacLaren defined economics as 'the study of the natural laws which govern the relationships between people in society'. This book is based on a three-year course prepared by Leon MacLaren for the School of Economic Science in London in the late 1960s. The editor, Raymond Makewell, presents the original subject matter revised with more recent examples and statistics from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and USA. Instead of making supply and demand the starting point, it begins with the simple observation that all material wealth is ultimately derived from land, and, where goods are exchanged the first requirement is trust, or a system of credit. From this starting point the major characteristics of the modern economy such as banking, companies or corporations, international trade, taxation and trade cycles are examined in terms of the conditions that govern how and why they evolved and how they operate today. The framework in which the economy operates is examined in terms of how the system of land tenure and the concepts of property evolved in the English-speaking world, the role of government in economic affairs, and the degree of economic freedom. This reveals how the current economic situation denies people access to all that they need to work and produce wealth for themselves. Injustice is the inevitable result and poverty its inseparable companion.

Raymond Makewell has lived and worked in Australia, Europe, the United States and the Middle East. The majority of his professional life has been spent in banking and the computer industry. He had senior roles in the design of new technologies for banks by multinational companies and in the application of these technologies by banks. He discovered the economic teaching of Leon MacLaren in the late 1970s and has run public courses teaching these ideas for many years. In 2007 he undertook a Bachelor of Economics degree and found that what was taught in universities about how people and business behaved was completely unlike what he had observed during 40 years of international business experience, and that economics was being considered devoid of history, politics and ethics. Although there was material in print which challenged many ideas of the neo-classical economists, there was very little available that presented a comprehensive, cogent, alternative view of the economic system. This book has been written to address that gap.

Introduction


Who Was Leon MacLaren?


LEON MACLAREN was born on 24 September 1910 in Glasgow and christened Leonardo da Vinci MacLaren. In the course of his eighty-three years, through the courses he developed and taught at the School of Economic Science in London, MacLaren has influenced and continues to influence thousands of people around the world. And yet, he rarely spoke about himself and scant details are available of his personal life.

His father was Andrew MacLaren,1 a true polymath whose talents, wit and oratorical gift laid the foundation for his son’s development in many directions. Convinced that the principles of Henry George offered the way out of the misery and poverty which he had seen around him in Glasgow as he grew up, Andrew began almost before he was out of his teens to campaign fiercely for land and tax reform. In 1922 Andrew MacLaren was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament.

From his father Leon MacLaren inherited a profound knowledge of music and the arts as well as a deep understanding of the laws of nature. One day he asked his mother about the great book which his father frequently consulted when preparing his speeches. So it was that he first came to read Henry George’s best-known work,Progress and Poverty.

When he was sixteen, sitting by a lake, he had an experience which set the direction for the rest of his life. In his words:

It became very clear to me that there was such a thing as truth and there was such a thing as justice, and that they could be found and, being found, could be taught. It seemed to me that that was the most valuable thing that one could pursue. So I resolved to pursue this when I was twenty-one.2

True to his resolution, in 1931 amidst the turmoil of the severe economic depression, MacLaren joined with a dozen or so young enthusiasts for the movement to promote land value taxation and they began to give free lectures on economic justice. As the lectures progressed it became apparent that the terms used in Economics lacked clarity and consistency and led to confusion. He decided as a result to set up a school to enquire into truth and justice, though as yet he had little idea what form such a school should take, apart from a notion that it should be Socratic in method.

Begun in 1937 with the help of his father, the Henry George School of Economics initially met in a Parliamentary committee room. A year later the first public evening classes were offered. By 1939 some three hundred people were studying the economics material he had written.

To support himself MacLaren studied law and in 1938 he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple. The following year he was nominated to stand for Parliament against no less a person than Winston Churchill. Perhaps happily for the future of the School, when war was declared the election was cancelled.

As war began some members of the School joined the armed forces and for a time no classes were held. He himself was exempted from military service on medical grounds and undertook civil duties. The Blitz in 1940 prevented any reopening but soon afterwards evenings were booked in a restaurant and the classes widely advertised. MacLaren described how students bravely walked to and from the meetings along streets lit only by the flames of burning buildings.

Despite the hazards of wartime, serious work continued in order to understand Economics and develop the teaching material. It was decided to offer a correspondence course. The course they developed analysed in depth the theories of the classical economists, among them Locke, the French physiocrats, Adam Smith and Ricardo, and debunked the 19th century wage fund theory and the doctrine of Malthus. The School’s aim was to eliminate misconceived economic ideas generally prevalent in society, such as the idea that capital employs labour (implying that employment and output rest primarily on the availability of capital); and that natural resources, or land, are scarce, severely limiting the production and distribution of wealth.

The School taught by contrast that land and labour are the primary factors of production, that were these both free to cooperate fully there would be no scarcity, and that capital defined accurately as‘wealth employed to produce more wealth’ is the product and servant of labour.

This approach also highlighted shortcomings in the teaching of Henry George. In 1942 the name Henry George was dropped and the School became‘The School of Economic Science’, the word‘science’ signalling the belief in the existence of natural laws of Economics and a method of direct observation free from personal opinion and vested interest.

During the last years of the war finances were strained to the limit and student numbers fell. MacLaren responded by writing a textbook,Nature of Society, presenting a concise account of the distinctive principles of Economics developed by the School to date. First it offers a systematic account of the principles relating to rent, wages, capital, credit, money and taxation. The book gives a central place to the relation of the