ORIGINS OF THE TERMINOLOGY “SUPPLY AND DEMAND”*
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1983.tb01020.x |
| Date | 01 August 1983 |
| Published date | 01 August 1983 |
| Author | William O. Thweatt |
Scorruh
Journalof
Polmral
Economy,
Vol
30.
No
3.
November
1983
0
1983
Scottish
Economic
Society
Notes
and Communications
ORIGINS
OF
THE
TERMINOLOGY
“SUPPLY
AND DEMAND”*
WILLIAM
0.
THWEATT
Vanderbilt University, Nashville
Although dipssion of the determinants of market prices dates back to at least
the seventeenth century, the woods “supply” and “demand” used conjointly
did not appear until much later. However Peter Groenewegen’s statement that
“supply and demand” did not “become a common expression in economic
literature
till
the beginning of the eighteen-twenties’’
(1973,
p.
509)
surely is
unfounded. This article attempts to indicate the origins and subsequent use of
the couplet b‘supply and demand” in British economic literature.
On the basis of a cursory inspection of seventeenth century literature it can
be said that “supply”
as
a noun was rarely used and “demand” in conjunction
with “supply” not at all. Rather we find expressions such as “scarcity and
plenty”, and “quantity and vent”. John Locke, for instance, wrote
of
price
being regulated by “Quantity in Proportion to
. .
.
vent
”
(1969,
p.
52).
One
of
the very few writers to use “demand” as a noun in the seventeenth century was
Sir Dudley North in
1691,
but not in conjunction with “supply” or even
“quantity”.
The first writer to use the noun “demand” in conjunction with “quantity”
was John Law in
1705.
As
against Locke, he insisted that “the Prices of Goods
are not according to the Quantity in Proportion to the Vent, but in Proportion
to the Demand”
(1705,
p.
5).
Law’s “quantity and demand” terminology soon
became common usage appearing in, among others, Defoe in
1730,
Hume in
1752
and Harris in
1757.
Still later we find “demand” combined with the verb “supply” as in Decker’s
“a vast Demand will certainly raise their Prices; but not being able
to
supply
Quantities sufficient..
.”(1744,
p.
68).
Adam Smith also combined “demand”
with the verb “supply”, first in his
Lectures
(1762-63),
and then in his
Wealth
of
Nations
on several occasions in the famous chapter on “Natural and Market
Prices”. But the first writer to use the nouns “supply” and “demand“ in one
sentence was Sir James Steuart in
1767,’
where we find it some
17
times.’
Thanks are due to John P. Henderson
of
Michigan State University and Denis O’Brien of the
University
of
Durham, and most particularly to Peter Groenewegen
for
his help and cooperation.
I
It
also appears on one occasion in John Mitchell’s little known
Present
State
ofGreat
Britain
(1767).
We owe the references to Steuart and Mitchell to Peter Groenewegen, who himself is
indebted for the information to Richard Wiles
of
Bard College, with whom we have corresponded.
The number
of
usages
of
“supply and demand” recorded in
all
that follows obviously is a
minimum since the number
of
pages scanned
was
well into the thousands. Additionally, some
authors who may have
uscd
the terminology in
our
period
we probably completely misseci.
Date
of
receipt
of
final manuscript:
5
April
1983
281
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