Collected Works of Edwin Cannan: (Collected Works)

Edwin Cannan (1861-1935), prodigious author and scholar whose name is inextricably linked with two great economics institutions, Adam Smith and the London School of Economics (LSE), probably had his greatest success as a professor. He nurtured a generation of scholars, teachers and writers at the LSE during his three decades as a dominant figure in economics there, from when the school opened in 1895 until the spring term of 1926 when he retired. Friedrich Hayek said of Cannan: '[his] greatest merit...was the training, over many years, of a group of pupils...:it was they who formed what probably became the most important centre of the new liberalism ...which emerged at the LSE during the 1930s.' Indeed, Cannan's emphases on the gradual evolution of social institutions, freedom form dogma and the undesirability of wholesale and rationalistic reconstruction of society placed him solidly in the liberty camp. His almost single-handed direction of the economic thought of the LSE from Marshallian economics into classical liberalism can only be admired. The student paper wrote at his death: 'His influence was truly remarkable. To the outside world, and to his students, whether specialists in economics or not, he typified the School' . Ronald Coase, Economics Nobel laureate, wholeheartedly supported this view, remembering Cannan as "the teacher of my teacher". Cannan was very involved in professional circles throughout his life, attending the first meeting of the Royal Economic Society and serving as a member of its governing council for over forty years. He was honorary secretary of the Society in 1926 and in 1932-4 served as president. He became a member of the Economic Section of the British Association in 1890, and twice served as president, in 1902 and 1931. He received two honorary degrees, from Glasgow in 1901 and Manchester in 1927. Among other scholarly accomplishments he contributed twenty-five entries to the original Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy and between 1895 and 1935 had sixty book reviews published in The Economic Journal . Cannan's ultimate achievement, however, was perhaps his view of all humanity as of equal moral worth and, potentially, one. He looked foreward to a new day in which divisions of class, nation and race would not play as nearly significant a role as they do now or did in his lifetime. His ideal was one world without meaningful national borders. He was a genuine libertarian in his outlook that freedom is the greatest good. This collection brings together Cannan's major contributions to the theory of distribution, quantity theory and the definition of "Classical Economics" as well as touching on his life at a more personal level in the articles and reminiscences written by scholars and friends.

Table of Contents:
Volume 1 Edwin Cannan: Liberal Doyen by Alan Ebenstein; Volume 2 Elementary Political Economy, The History of Local Rates in Britain: In Relation to the Proper Distribution of the Burden of Taxation; Volume 3 a History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to 1848; Volume 4 The Economic Outlook; Volume 5 Wealth: A Brief Explanation of the Causes of Economic Welfare; Volume 6 An Economist's Protest; Volume 7 Money: Its Connection with rising and Falling Prices, Modern Currency and the Regulation of its Value, Economic Scares; Volume 8 A Review of Economic Theory

Review :
'...Simple presentation that never loses touch with concrete reality.' - Friedrich Hayek '...I'm a great admirer of Cannan...Cannan was a first-rate economist.' - Milton Friedman '...Nobody can peruse his lively short tracts on money and monetary policy without pleasure and profit.' - Joseph Schumpeter