Walter Layton on The Relations of Capital and Labour (1914): A Marshallian Text pur sang?

Peter Groenewegen

History of Economics Review, 2007, vol. 46, issue 1, 19-31

Abstract: After completing the new Economics and Politics Tripos at Cambridge University in 1906 with first-class honours, Walter Layton taught economics at Cambridge under A. C . Pigou from 1908 to 1914, a contemporary on the staff with J. M. Keynes. Over these years as economics teacher, he published two monographs: An Introduction to the Theory of Prices (1912) and The Relations of Capital and Labour (1914). It is the second volume which is the subject matter of this paper. Written for the Nation’s Library, a series devoted to issues in current affairs, it was designed to give theoretical and other background to ‘the present [time] of widespread industrial unrest’ in an ‘impartial’ way. More specifically, the book’s purpose was ‘to focus attention on the fundamental considerations which affect the relations of labour and capital, and the way in which the wealth of the nation is distributed, with a view, if at all possible, to discovering terms on which both employers and employees may be reasonably asked to give willing service to the community’ (Layton 1914, pp. 13-14). The paper investigating this economic tract for the times is organised as follows. Section 2 provides a brief introduction to both Walter Layton and the labour unrest of 1912-1913, which inspired the book. Section 3 succinctly examines Layton’s book on capital and labour. Section 4 gives some conclusions, particularly on the book’s credentials as a Marshallian text pur sang.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1080/18386318.2007.11682107

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