William Stanley Jevons (Timeline)

William Stanley Jevons was a British philosopher and economist who, along with Leon Walras and Carl Menger, launched the marginalist revolution in economics. This revolution began the transformation of economics into the mathematized discipline it is today.

September 1, 1835: Jevons is born in Liverpool, England.

1850: Begins study at the University College School at age 15 and a year later at University College London. There he studies natural sciences, excelling at chemistry and botany. Financial difficulties force Jevons to leave school before completing a degree.

And he writes that, given his view that economics should be considered an inherently mathematical discipline, he will need to take up studies in mathematics upon his return to England.

I have almost determined to spend a year at college before looking out for any employment in England. It might be worth while to take my B.A. (If I had had this degree before coming to this colony I should vastly have improved my position in, as well as outside, the mint) I wish especially to become a good mathematician, without which nothing, I am convinced, can be thoroughly-done. Most of my theories proceed upon a kind of mathematical basis, but I exceedingly regret being unable to follow them out beyond general arguments.

1859: Returns to London.

1859 – 1862: Jevons spends three years studying philosophy, political economy, and mathematics.

1862: Completes an M.A. in moral sciences at UCL.

1862: Aged only 26 or 27, submits a paper entitled A Brief Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy to a meeting of the British Association which envisions a transformation of the discipline of economics.

It essentially constitutes an early sketch of Jevons’ eventual magnum opus The Theory of Political Economy (1871). 

The essay argues that the incorporation of mathematics into economics would allow economists to explain virtually all economic activity by deductively reasoning from a basic theory of utility.

But despite making arguments similar to those he would later make in his 1871 treatise, which would cement him as one of the most important figures in the history of economic thought, the antecedent 1862 paper goes ignored.

1863: Publishes A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold Ascertained.

This book draws the praise of eminent economists John Elliot Cairnes and Walter Bagehot.

1865: Publishes The Coal Question. [1]

The book garners national attention. It is referenced by Member of Parliament John Stuart Mill in the House of Commons while advocating a reduction in the national debt during an April 1866 parliamentary debate. [2]

May 1866: Jevons is appointed professor of political economy and logic at Owens College, Manchester (today University of Manchester).  [3] [4]

June 1866: Jevons’ Brief Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy – overlooked at the 1862 meeting of the British Association – is published in the Journal of the Statistical Society of London. Nevertheless, it receives little attention.

1867: Jevons marries Harriet A. Taylor, with whom he would have three children.

1871: Publishes The Theory of Political Economy.

This book, building on the ideas in his 1862 Brief Account, argues that the incorporation of mathematical techniques - in particular calculus - into economic theory would allow economists to explain essentially all economic activity by deductively reasoning from a basic theory of utility.

It is widely reviewed throughout England, with appraisals running in the pages of newspapers in London and Manchester. Both Alfred Marshall and John Elliot Cairnes publish reviews of Jevons’ magnum opus.

This book, coupled with the contemporaneous work of Leon Walras and Carl Menger, marked a turning point for economic thought: Jevons, Walras, and Menger would launch the marginalist revolution and set economics on the path toward becoming the heavily mathematical discipline it is today.

Jevons’ push for a mathematized economics built on a utility theory foundation meets some resistance from John Elliot Cairnes.

But Jevons also finds important allies: across the Channel, a Frenchman was independently developing his own mathematical treatise on economics.

1872: Jevons is appointed to the Royal Society.

1874: French economist Leon Walras publishes Elements of Pure Economics: Or the Theory of Social Wealth. [5] 

Jevons and his French ally in the push to revolutionize economics carry out an ongoing correspondence about their effort.

May 30, 1874: In a letter to Walras, Jevons writes, referring to the former’s theory of exchange:

I cannot delay expressing the pleasure with which I find that we have by independent paths reached conclusions which are nearly if not quite the same. I flatter myself with the hope that the unity of our results arises from the best cause, namely that we have both reached the truth, which must be one. …. I have always in my own mind attached much importance to this mathematical theory of economy, believing it to be the only basis upon which an ultimate reform of the science of political economy can be founded and a solution of many difficult problems effected. …. For my own part I shall have much pleasure in doing what I can to make known in England your own excellent statement of the theory of exchange, and to show my high estimation of your friendly conduct. I trust that the theory of exchange will thus become the origin of the exchange between us of many friendly letters.

1875: Jevons writes to Walras about the foothold their approach to economics was gaining in the English academy.

I think that a considerable change of opinion is taking place in England. Various correspondents express their acquiescence, and some of the professors are beginning to bring the theory before their students. When I was in Cambridge two months ago I found that the subject was much better understood there than I had supposed, and I have little doubt about its gaining ground ultimately …. I have no doubt whatever about the ultimate success of our efforts, but it will take some fighting; the disciples of J.S. Mill being bitterly opposed to any innovation upon his doctrine.

February 1875: George Darwin (son of Charles Darwin) publishes The Theory of Exchange Value, which attacks Cairnes’ criticism of mathematics in economics and makes a case for the mathematization of the discipline.

Footnotes

[1] Jevons writes of the buzz generated by The Coal Question and its strong sales several times in his letters.

In a March 24 letter to his brother Herbert, Jevons writes:

One of the best things that has happened of late is the letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressing great approval of the Coal Question, and allowing that it has strengthened his desire to reduce the National Debt.

In a May 9, 1866 letter to his sister Lucy, Jevons writes:

The Coal Question gets on apace. The papers are hammering away about it A member of Parliament is going to move for a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole subject, and there will be one or two debates upon the matter probably. The Times accuses me of misleading Mr. Gladstone. Of course one must be criticised and abused a little. The more one's name is named now, the better for my professorship appointment. I have such strong opinions in favour of the Coal Question, and am so confident that nearly all parts of the book at all events will bear examination, that I am not afraid.

Jevons writes in a July 7, 1866 letter to Lucy:

I see that the Coal Commission is appointed, with the Duke of Argyll for chairman. I hear from Macmillan that 284 copies of the new edition of the Coal Question were subscribed for by the booksellers on its coming out, and he thinks that the whole edition will sell, so that I shall get some money from it, for a wonder.

In a July 18, 1866 letter to Lucy, Jevons writes:

The Coal Question seems to sell well in Newcastle. In one shop the man told me they had sold a good few, and had only two copies left At the railway station I took up a copy there, and was much amused by the man saying, ‘Fine work that, sir. The first edition sold off very quick.’ There is a palpable want of truth about the latter part at least which takes away from the first.

[2] On being referenced favorably by John Stuart Mill in parliamentary debate, Jevons writes in an April 20 entry in his journal:

What is this poor mind of mine, with all its wavering hopes and fears, that its thoughts should be quoted and approved by a great philosopher in the Parliament of so great a nation? Do not grant me intellectual power, O God, unless it be joined to awe of Thee and Thy works, and to an ever-present love of others!

[3] While being considered for the professorship at Owens College, Manchester, Jevons wrote several times of his anxiety about the matter.

In a March 24, 1866 letter to his brother Herbert, Jevons writes:

I am very sorry that I have been able to write so little of late. This term, however, is always a heavy one, and I have had, and have, causes of great anxiety which take up my thoughts. … If I can get this professorship which is now just declared vacant, I shall be all right. The salary is £250 and the fees. Of course I have a great many things in my favour, as I am doing the full work of the professorship, and am exactly suited for it by my degree, reading, etc. But the trustees will probably carry out their rule of making it an open election, and one cannot be sure how that will go. And there are many things, such as want of sociability, which will tell much against me. Probably I exaggerate the chances against me at present. …. It may be a couple of months yet before the professorship is decided, and until then I cannot have much peace of mind. Before I can have an answer it will have been decided for better or for worse, so there is no need to say more at present.

In a May 9, 1866 letter to his sister Lucy, Jevons writes:

I am kept, however, in a state of great excitement and anxiety altogether. I don't really doubt about getting the professorship, but I can't help feeling unsettled and nervous. There are a good many applications, but few of the slightest consequence.

[4] In a May 31, 1866 journal entry, Jevons writes about being informed of his appointment as a professor at Owens College, Manchester:

This afternoon I was finally and positively appointed professor of logic and mental and moral philosophy and Cobden professor of political economy in Owens College, by the trustees in full conclave. Mr. Greenwood asked me into the room, and the chairman, in a short speech, informed me of the appointment, and explained why rules had prevented their making the appointment earlier. I replied in a short but, I suppose, suitable speech, and the thing was done.

[5] Referring to the originality and independence of Walras’ Elements of Pure Economics: Or the Theory of Social Wealth, Jevons writes in a May 30, 1874 letter to the Frenchman:

I have now been in possession for two or three days of part of the proofs of your work on “Theorie de la Richesse Sociale”, which you have been so good as to send me[.] …. After receiving your very friendly letter of 23rd May and after seeing a full statement of your mode if arriving at the equations of exchange, I cannot for a moment entertain the least doubt of the entire independence of your own researches as regards my own.

[6] Jevons discusses his overworked state several times throughout his correspondences in addition to the above-mentioned letter to Walras.

In a July 8, 1881 letter to his brother Tom, Jevons writes:

I am in an extraordinary weak state, and was quite knocked up the other day by walking to St. Leonards and back, two miles each way. I sleep quite twelve hours out of the twenty-four, which seems to do me more good than anything else at present.

Written By: Aiden Singh Published: February 2, 2021

Sources

Letters & Journals of William Stanley Jevons. Edited by Harriet Jevons. Macmillan and Co. 1886.

Margaret Schabas. The “Worldly Philosophy” of William Stanley Jevons. Victorian Studies. Autumn 1984, Vol. 28, No. 1. pg. 129-147.

Papers and Correspondence of William Stanley Jevons. Volume IV. Correspondence 1873-1878. Edited by R.D. Collison Black. Palgrave Macmillan. 1977.

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XXVIII – Public and Parliamentary Speeches Part I November 1850 – November 1868. Edited by John M. Robson & Bruce L. Kinzer. University of Toronto Press: Routledge. 1988.

William Stanley Jevons. A Brief Account of a General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy. Journal of the Statistical Society of London. 1866.

William Stanley Jevons. The Theory of Political Economy. Macmillan & Co. 1871.