Moral Economy and Market Order

In 1971 E. P. Thompson introduced the idea of popular disturbances related to the high price of bread as articulations of a moral economy embodying conceptions of social justice. Adam Smith is treated as representative of a new political economy opposed to these conceptions, which in time subdued this “moral economy.” Thompson’s construction of a moral economy remains valuable, but he was mistaken in his approach to political economy. Thomas Robert Malthus is a more fitting representative than Smith. It is shown that Malthus’s propositions about population and inequality rested on his theological beliefs, not on argument and empirical analysis. In addition to elaborating the “market ideology” that Thompson refers to in passing, it is shown that it is possible to integrate social historical and conceptual argument, not simply favor one over the other.