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The Oldest Extant Undergraduate Essay in Economics?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

A. M. C. Waterman
A. M. C. Waterman
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts, 306 St. John's College, University of Manitoba, 92 Dysart Road, Winnipeg R3T 2M5, Canada. E-mail: watermn@cc.umanitoba.ca
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Extract

The manuscript collection of the National Library of Scotland contains two undergraduate essays in “political economy” written for the Rev. Thomas Chalmers while he was Professor of Moral Philosophy at St Andrews University from 1823 to 1828. The first is signed “Pat. J. Stirling.” The second is unsigned, but is in the same hand. The Library attributes both manuscripts to Patrick James Stirling (1809–1891). The essays are marked with deletions and insertions, most of which appear to be by Stirling himself, and the summary appraisal at the end of each in Chalmers's own hand is signed “Thomas Chalmers.” In the transcription of the shorter essay printed in section VI below, [bracketed] words are those which have been deleted. Underlined words are those inserted by Stirling or possibly Chalmers. Stirling's erratic capitalization and hyphenation, and the indentation of his first paragraph, have been preserved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 359 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2005

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