Mill and Cairnes and the Emergence of Marginalism in England

Abstract

It is well known that marginalist concepts appeared in economic literature before 1871. As far as England is concerned, the notion of diminishing marginal utility, for example, was spelt out in the 1830’s and again in the 1850’s. And Jevons hit upon and outlined his special view of political economy a full decade before the Theory of Political Economy was published.