A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to 1848

Cannan's masterwork is a detailed analysis of the economics of the classicists, in the period between Adam Smith's *Wealth of Nations* (1776) and John Stuart Mill's *Principles of Political Economy* (1848). Smith, Ricardo, Malthus and J. S. Mill predominate, but other and lesser figures, including John M'Culloch, James Mill, Nassau Senior and William Paley are considered in Cannan's in-depth study. So thorough an analysis was it acknowledged to be that Hugh Dalton claimed in 1927 that 'no one need ever do this particular piece of work again'.