Abstract
‘Abstinence’ was Nassau Senior’s term for that conduct for which profit is the reward (1836, p. 59). He meant it to convey two things: ‘both the act of abstaining from the unproductive use of capital, and also the similar conduct of the man who devotes his labour to the production of remote rather than immediate results’ (1836, p. 89). The term he knew was not ideal, but it was preferable to ‘providence’, which implies nothing of self-denial; and to ‘frugality’, which implies care and attention, that is, labour, which analytically Senior wanted to keep distinct from the agent of production rewarded by profit. For the same reason he chose not to speak of profit in relation to ‘capital’. Capital usually combines the services of natural agents, labour and abstinence, but it is desirable in an analysis to keep their several contributions distinct.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Bibliography
Fisher, I. 1907. The rate of interest. New York: Macmillan.
Marshall, A. 1890. Principles of economics, vol. 2, 9 (variorum)th ed. London: Macmillan for the Royal Economic Society, 1961.
Mill, J.S. 1848. Principles of political economy. In Collected works of John Stuart Mill, vol. II, III, ed. J.M. Robson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965.
Mill, J.S. 1879. Chapters on socialism. In Collected works, Vol. V, 1967.
Senior, N.W. 1836. An outline of the science of political economy, Reprint. New York: Kelley, 1965.
Senior, N.W. 1848–9. Course of lectures delivered in the University of Oxford. Unpublished; quoted in Industrial efficiency and social economy by Nassau W. Senior, ed. S. Leon Levy, 2. vols, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1928.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1987 The Author(s)
About this entry
Cite this entry
De Marchi, N. (1987). Abstinence. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_661-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_661-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences