THE DUNDEE SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: IN MEMORIAM
| Author | D.L. Munby |
| Published date | 01 February 1957 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1957.tb00218.x |
| Date | 01 February 1957 |
THE DUNDEE SCHOOL
OF
ECONOMICS
IN MEMORIAM
THE
Dundee School
of
Economics, which lived for exactly twenty-one
sessions before it was absorbed in the new School of Social Sciences
of Queen's College, St. Andrews, made for its size
a
most distinguished
contribution to the development of modern economic thought. This is
evident in the names and varied interests of those who taught there,
of whom six have contributed to the memorial volume of
Economic
ESSCIVS.'
At its post-war peak it had some sixty students reading
for London B.Com. and B.Sc.Econ. degrees,
a
high number
for
Scotland where the specialised study of economics is cramped. The
contributions to this volume show what might be regarded
as
a
'
London
'
approach to economics, at least to those who accept Pro-
fessor A. L. Macfie's definition
of
the
'
Scottish Tradition
'.z
It is not in fact clear that this Scottish tradition has survived from
the early years of the nineteenth century
in
the field of economics,
though
no
doubt Scottish universities maintained
a
longer addiction
to obscure German prophets than others did. Tt is not obvious that
the contribution of Scotland to economics in the last thirty or forty
years has been largely
'
historical, social or semi-philosophical
',
or
'
speculative
',
or
'
normative
'.3
But
in
so
far
as
Scottish universities
have sometimes shown themselves allergic to the London-Cambridge
approach, the significance of the Dundee School is that, whether
regarded
as
a
foreign irritant in the Scottish oyster,
or
merely
as
a
faithful carrier of the new traditions of economics. it has made
it
more
difficult
for
Scots to forget that, though we need
a
wider economics
that goes beyond curves and limited assumptions, such
a
wider
economics must be built
on
the foundation
of
careful analysis that
our fathers
so
painfully laid. The six essays of this memorial volume
(four
on
fundamental economic theory and two on economic history)
show something
of
the nature of the bricks that make such
a
founda-
tion. It
is
to be hoped that, though the Dundee School lives
no
more
as
such, the influence of this tradition will penetrate deeper into the
Scottish universities.
Economic
Essnys.
in Commemorution
of
the
DiiritlPc
Sclrool
of
Economics,
1931-1955,
edited
by
J.
K.
Eastham
(1955:
distributed
by
the Economists'
Bookshop Ltd.. London).
'
The Scottish Tradition
in
Economic
Thought
'.
Scottish
Journal
of
Political
Economy,
June 1955.
Ihid.,
pp.
99,
101.
60
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