3 - Statistics, historical economics, and economic history

Summary

The nineteenth century saw the flowering of the statistical movement in England. The first statistical societies were formed during the 1830s. The growing appetite of the state for more reliable information led to the development of statistical departments within the government. Early in the century the word statistics was still closely tied to its German origin, “Staatenkunde” which meant the knowledge of the political arrangement of states. Subsequently, statistics came to acquire its modern connotation of a quantitative representation of facts. Such a science was assumed to be objective if it concentrated on simply collecting and arranging facts and left others to interpret their political or moral significance. This claim of objectivity was also insisted upon by those working in economic statistics, such as G.R. Porter, Thomas Tooke, William Newmarch, Robert Giffen, Leone Levi, Charles Booth, and J.E.T. Rogers. Moreover, they held that the collection, arrangement, and interpretation of economic statistics would produce more useful economic knowledge than the deductive method. Nonetheless, they freely used their statistics to defend their particular political, social, or moral persuasions. Such verification or refutation of economic doctrine with the actual facts of a particular time and place, as Cairnes had warned, seriously weakened the perceived universal validity of orthodox economic theory.

Ricardian economics, as has been noted, was particularly susceptible to empirical falsification. H.S. Foxwell observed in 1887 that this was one of the prime causes of its ill repute.