John Stuart Mill originally wrote the Principles of Political Economy, with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy very quickly, having studied economics under the rigorous tutelage of his father, James, since his youth. It was published in 1848 in London and was republished with changes and updates a total of seven times in Mill’s lifetime. The edition presented here is that prepared by W. J. Ashley in 1909, based on Mill’s 7th edition of 1870. Ashley followed the 7th edition with great care, noting changes in the editions in footnotes and in occasional square brackets within the text. The text provides English translations to several lengthy quotations originally quoted by Mill in French.

In The Representation of Business in English Literature, five scholars of different periods of English literature produce original essays on how business and businesspeople have been portrayed by novelists, starting in the eighteenth century and continuing to the end of the twentieth century. The contributors to Representation help readers understand the partiality of the various writers and, in so doing, explore the issue of what determines public opinion about business.

A volume in the collection Studies in Economic Theory first published by the Institute for Humane Studies. This is a collection of essays written in the LSE opportunity cost tradition by scholars associated with the London School of Economics between 1937 and 1960. The papers are by Lionel Robbins, Hayek, Edwards, Coase, Thirlby, and Wiseman. Another copy of this book can be found in HTML format at our sister website Econlib.

Towards the end of writing his 6 volume history of England Hume surveyed the entire sweep of English constitutional development. We include this aside as a separate essay here. His investigations now permitted him confidently to reject the Whig view that England has enjoyed a single constitution whose original plan was laid by the ancient Saxons. In fact, Hume argued, English history brings to light a succession of diverse constitutional arrangements which led, in ways that were largely unplanned and unanticipated, to “the most perfect and most accurate system of liberty that was ever found compatible with government.” The original can be found here: David Hume, The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688, Foreword by William B. Todd, 6 vols. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1983). Vol. 2. Chapter: XXIII: EDWARD V AND RICHARD III.

Towards the end of the 19th century the doyen of laissez-faire economic thought in France evaluates the successes and failures of the liberal reform agenda.

The Leveller pamphleteer Richard Overton could not stop himself from denouncing the tyrants who put him in jail for speaking his mind. His “arrow” was “shot from the prison of Newgate into the prerogative bowels of the arbitrary House of Lords and all other usurpers and tyrants whatsoever”.

The natural law theory of Johann Gottlieb Heineccius was one of the most influential to emerge from the early German Enlightenment. Heineccius continued and, in important respects, modified the ideas of his predecessors, Samuel Pufendorf and Christian Thomasius. He developed distinctive views on central questions such as the freedom of the human will and the natural foundation of moral obligation, which also sharply distinguished him from his contemporary Christian Wolff. The Liberty Fund edition is based on the translation by the Scottish moral philosopher George Turnbull (1698–1748). It includes Turnbull’s extensive comments on Heineccius’s text, as well as his substantial Discourse upon the Nature and Origin of Moral and Civil Laws. These elements make the work into one of the most extraordinary encounters between Protestant natural law theory and neo-republican civic humanism.

Huss’s most famous work for which he was burnt at the stake for claiming that Christ was the founder of the Church not Peter.

Calvin’s detailed commentaries on imortant books of the New Testament.

A collection of Huss’ letters from 1408 to 1415.