The transition in the foundation of liberal argument from politics to economics outlined above found support in Britain from academic economists able to articulate clearly these new foundations. This was first made obvious in the dispute over tariff reform leading up to the 1906 election, when proponents of the “new economics” publicly supported free trade, while those economists who did not—William Cunningham, W. A. S. Hewins, William Ashley—are linked by the skepticism with which they viewed the development of contemporary economic thinking. … Representative of his approach is his collection of essays and articles on the conduct of the economy during World War I and after in which he asserts, in his typically forthright style, that “Modern civilization, nearly all civilization, is based on the principle of making things pleasant for those who please the market and unpleasant for those who fail to do so . . . ,” adding “. . . whatever defects this principle may have, it is better than none.”

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 395