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.
Outline Contents: Introduction and 20 chapters in four section: First Principles, The Capitalist System, An Ethical Perspective, The Nature of Society; Afterword, Glossary of Terms, Select Bibliography, Index.
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Where people will not work and produce wealth for themselves and others, poverty is inevitable. That is, or should be, a matter of personal choice. But the second factor is equally important and compelling and not a matter of individual choice: where economic systems deny people access to all that they need to work and produce wealth for themselves, poverty is equally inevitable and injustice its inseparable companion.
