Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy Nassau William Senior

Four Introductory Lectures on Political Economy by Nassau William Senior (1790-1864) collects four of Senior’s introductory lectures from his Oxford Drummond Chair tenure. Senior held the chair twice, from 1825 to 1830 and again from 1847 to 1852, and his introductory lectures were used to introduce Oxford students to the principles and methods of the developing discipline of political economy.

The four lectures cover the basic theoretical apparatus that classical English political economy had developed by the 1830s. Senior was particularly concerned with the methodological foundations of the discipline and with establishing political economy as a serious academic study deserving of university recognition rather than as a topical pursuit for businessmen and reformers.

Senior’s substantial theoretical contributions included his work on the nature of value, on the theory of rent, on the relationship between wages and capital, and on the methodological distinction between positive economic analysis and normative policy recommendation.