Alfred Russel Wallace and the Political Economists

Alfred Russel Wallace is famous as the co-discoverer with Darwin of the mechanism of natural selection. He was also an enthusiastic economic and social reformer. This article considers the relationship of Wallace's work to that of a number of eminent economists, including Malthus, Mill, Marshall, and Fisher. Wallace's economics, which attempted to analyze practical socialism, protection of the environment, and monetary stability, was interesting and insightful. It was only loosely related to his evolutionary theory.