The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Living Edition
| Editors: Palgrave Macmillan

Machinery Question

  • S. Rashid
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_848-1
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Abstract

That machinery is of benefit to the manufacturer who introduces it has never been a point of discussion in the history of economics and the machinery question is solely a dispute over whether society benefits from the introduction of machinery, the most pressing social issue being the displacement of labour by machinery and the consequent threat of widespread unemployment. In general terms, the social benefits of machinery were well appreciated by the middle of the 18th century. However, the greatly increased use of machinery at the end of the 18th century gave a new intensity to the debate at the beginning of the 19th century. The analytical tools used by classical economists to tackle this general equilibrium problems were however quite inadequate and it is doubtful whether a deeper understanding of the issue was achieved by the heroic abstractions of the 19th century.

Keywords

Fixed Capital Classical Economist Pure Competition General Equilibrium Problem Society Benefit 
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 1987

Authors and Affiliations

  • S. Rashid
    • 1
  1. 1.