Author Description

This second volume of the Collected Works of Thomas Hodgskin brings together his earlier writings on his concerns with Naval issues, primarily Impressment. These include his first book On Naval Discipline (1813), a series of letters published in the Morning Chronicle (1815), and his only publication within the Edinburgh Review on The Abolition of Impressment (1824). The importance of these works is twofold. Firstly, they contain his early excursions into economic arguments. For example, his early exposition of what was to become known as cost benefit analysis, showed that Impressment was a less than cost effective mechanism, which, for all practical purposes, amounted to a waste of government funds. Secondly, they illustrates Hodgskin’s early use of psychological arguments and reasoning about the utility and disutility of Labour. In a similar vein he presented an exposition of basic human social desires for fame and reciprocal acknowledgement.