Richard Jones (1790 – 20 January 1855) was an English economist who criticised the theoretical views of

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British Political economy, political economist. He was one of the most influential of the Classical economics, classical economists along with Thomas Robert Malthus, Thomas Malthus, Ad ...

and

T. R. Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Malt ...

economic rent In economics, economic rent is any payment (in the context of a market transaction) to the owner of a factor of production in excess of the cost needed to bring that factor into production. In classical economics, economic rent is any payment m ...

and

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

Life

The

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

of a

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, Jones was intended for the legal profession, and was educated at

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

. Owing to ill-health, he abandoned the idea of the law and took orders soon after leaving Cambridge. For several years he held curacies in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

and

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. In 1833 Jones was appointed professor of political economy at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, resigning this post in 1835 to succeed

in the chair of political economy and history at the

East India College The East India Company College, or East India College, was an educational establishment situated at Hailey, Hertfordshire, nineteen miles north of London, founded in 1806 to train "writers" (administrators) for the Honourable East India Company ( ...

at Haileybury. Along with

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

Adolphe Quetelet Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet FRSF or FRSE (; 22 February 1796 – 17 February 1874) was a Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist who founded and directed the Brussels Observatory and was influential in introduc ...

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved dist ...

and

Thomas Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book '' An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

, Jones was instrumental in founding the Statistical Society of London (later "

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

") in 1834. This was an outgrowth of the Statistical Section of the

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...

.Denis Patrick O'Brien, ''The classical economists revisited'', Princeton University Press (2004) Jones took an active part in the

Tithe Commutation Act 1836 The Tithe Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will 4 c 71), sometimes called the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of the Tithe Acts 1836 to 1891. It replaced the ancient system of payment of tithes in kind wi ...

and was a tithe commissioner to 1851. He was for some time, also, a

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

commissioner. He died at Haileybury, shortly after he had resigned his professorship.

Work

In 1831 Jones published his ''Essay on the Distribution of Wealth and on the Sources of Taxation'', his major work. In it he showed himself a critic of the Ricardian system. Jones's method was inductive; his conclusions are based on the real world with the different forms which the ownership and cultivation of land, and, in general, the conditions of production and distribution, assume at different times and places. He resisted taking the exceptional British state of affairs as representing the uniform type of human societies, and admitted

path dependence Path dependence is a concept in economics and the social sciences, referring to processes where past events or decisions constrain later events or decisions. It can be used to refer to outcomes at a single point in time or to long-run equilibria ...

in economics. While respecting Malthus, he declined to accept that an increase of the means of subsistence is necessarily followed by an increase of population. He maintained that with the growth of population, in all well-governed and prosperous states, the command over food, instead of diminishing, increases.

Major publications

''An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth and on the Sources of Taxation'' London, John Murray, 1831.
Reprinted, Kessinger (2008). *
Peasant rents : being the first half of an essay on the distribution of wealth and on the sources of taxation
' (1831)
''An Introductory Lecture on Political Economy'', London, John Murray, 1833
*
Remarks on the government bill for the commutation of tithe
' (1836) *
Remarks on the Manner in which Tithe Should be Assessed to the Poor's Rate, Under the Existing Law: With a Protest Against the Change which Will be Produced in that Law, by a Bill Introduced Into the House of Commons by Mr. Shaw Lefevre
' (1838)
''Literary remains, consisting of lectures and tracts on political economy of the late Rev. Richard Jones,'' ed. William Whewell. London : John Murray, 1859.
**
Literary remains, consisting of lectures and tracts on political economy
' (1859); at Archive.org

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Richard English economists English historical school of economics 19th-century British economists English non-fiction writers Academics of King's College London Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge People from Royal Tunbridge Wells 19th-century English Anglican priests 1790 births 1855 deaths English male non-fiction writers 19th-century English male writers