John Stuart Mill, Francis Longe and William Thornton on Demand and Supply

William Thornton's On Labour, Its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues, Its Actual Present and Possible Future was a contribution to the social debate of the 1860s. In the context of an attack on the vulgar wage-fund theory, which was wielded in popular discourse to emphasize the futility of trade unions, Thornton offered a more general assault on what he labelled “demand and supply.” John Stuart Mill had expected Thornton's book to play an important role in furthering his own campaign in support of trade union legalization, but the book received mixed reviews. Most critics missed the opportunity to respond to Thornton's social commentary, and focused instead on his analysis of demand and supply. The negative reviews found the theory wanting and, to John Stuart Mill's chagrin, dismissed the entire book. But the positive reviews were even more devastating from Mill's perspective. Not only did they ignore the social analysis, with which Mill was in agreement, but they seemed convinced that Thornton had demolished the demand and supply theory. Since Mill was then trying to consolidate the intellectual basis of the Liberal party on the foundation of classical political economy, this was hardly an outcome he could accept. The recantation article, which combined a sympathetic treatment of Thornton's social analysis with a criticism of his economic analysis, was the inevitable result (see Forget 1992).