Consumption and Waste in Early Nineteenth-Century Political Economy
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.This article examines the conceptualisation of consumption in the early 19th-century political economy. It argues that a rupture occurred in the discourse on consumption after Adam Smith, who viewed consumption as a practice driven by humanity’s natural desire to consume and aimed at satisfying the needs and wants of the population. Jean-Baptiste Say’s reorganization of Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776) into the categories of production, distribution, and consumption led to the emergence of consumption as a distinct, ‘abstract’ category and its division into productive and unproductive consumption. In their efforts to develop an abstract science of political economy, British political economists focused primarily on production and accumulation, reducing the importance of consumption, which they understood as a destruction. While reproductive consumption contributed to accumulation, unproductive consumption was seen as a wasteful destruction although its purpose was the satisfaction of wants. As a result, it was progressively excluded from the science of political economy throughout the 19th century and relegated to the realm of domestic economy. However, Smith’s insights into the natural desire to consume persisted in the 19th century, notably in the political economy of Malthus and John Stuart Mill.
DOI: 10.16995/rhetm.20178
Author: Louise Villeneuve
Institution: Goldsmiths University of London
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4415915658