Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/22

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
2
THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL

also ' Economic' in the character which the term suggests of special knowledge and scientific accuracy.

As a fuller and more authentic statement of the principles on which the Association is based, the report of the speeches which the promoters of the Association delivered on the occasion of its foundation is submitted to the readers of the Journal by

The Editor.


Report of the Proceedings at the Meeting which Inaugurated the Brithish Economic Association.

A meeting was held on the afternoon of November 21, 1890, at University College, London, under the presidency of Mr. Goschen, to discuss proposals for the foundation of an economic society or association, and in conjunction therewith of an economic journal. In the circular convening the meeting, and signed by Professor Alfred Marshall, of Cambridge, it is stated that 'the need of an economic journal has long been felt in England. Every other country in which economic studies are pursued with great activity offers facilities for the publication of thorough scientific work by persons who have not the time, or are unwilling, to write a formal treatise. Since isolated pamphlets, however able, seldom obtain any considerable circulation, Englishmen who have something to say that is too technical for the ordinary magazines, and too short for a book, are sometimes compelled to give their views to the world in the columns of a foreign periodical, or as a publication of the American Economic Association; but more frequently they put it aside till an opportunity should offer for working it out more fully and publishing it as a book; and that opportunity too often does not come. A strong and widespread feeling that English economists, and especially the younger men among them, are thus placed at a great disadvantage through the want of any easy means of communication with one another, has led to the holding of many private meetings and discussions on the subject in Oxford, Cambridge, London, and possibly elsewhere; and lately the matter has come under consideration of the committee of Section F (Economics and Statistics) of the British Association.' It was also felt 'that some security should be afforded that the journal should always represent all shades of economic opinion, and be the organ not of one school of English economists, but of all schools; and it is thought that this end will be best attained by the