J.S. Mill: The Utilitarian Influence in the Demise of Laissez-faire

The period which encompasses, roughly, the years from 1836 to 1870, was the critical one for political economy as conceived by Adam Smith. It was at this juncture that some of the inconsistencies in the doctrine of the Classical Economists of the earlier years came to be questioned, that certain tendencies in the old position which were opposed to laissez-faire came to full fruition, and that the old notions of the nature of political economy as a discipline came under close scrutiny and were, ultimately, transformed.

Volume 2, Number 2 (1978)