J. M. Keynes and D. H. Robertson: Three Phases Of Collaboration

Academic interest in the working relationship between Keynes and Robertson has, not surprisingly, focused upon their disagreements over the writing of The General Theory (hereafter GT).1 While not disputing that the period from 1931–5 was the most productive and relevant period in the formulation of ‘Keynesian Economics’, such a focus does disguise the close and substantive collaboration which existed between Keynes and Robertson throughout the 1920s and to a lesser extent from 1910–15. The purpose of this paper therefore is to redress the balance, to examine the ebb and flow of ideas between them which culminated in such major books as Banking Policy and the Price Level (hereafter BPPL)2 and The Treatise on Money (hereafter TM).3 The GT was the finale in Keynes’s presentation of his macroeeonomic thinking, but certainly not his only major contribution; although it could be argued that the GT was not totally consistent with what Keynes had written before, nevertheless his earlier work, with Robertson and others, did have some bearing upon the GT and to that extent is important. The GT represented the end product of over a quarter of a century of Keynes’s thoughts on macroeeonomic theory, and it was upon this solid foundation that the GT was constructed. Clearly for Robertson, as will be seen in the final section here, the GT was an inadequate ending to their collaborative efforts; for Keynesian economists it symbolized the beginning of a totally new approach to macroeconomics and unfortunately this led to a relative neglect of what had gone before.