History

The journal was conceived in November 1890, at the inauguration of the British Economic association which became the Royal Economic Society in 1902. One of the central aims of the new society was to pretend a forum through which British economic research could be published. In a circular refers out before the inaugural meeting, Alfred Marshall, one of the founding members of the society, planned the significant affect a new journal would throw on British economic science:

...the need of an economic journal has long been felt in England. Every other country in which economic studies are pursued with great activity makes facilities for the publication of thorough scientific work... Englishmen however...are sometimes compelled to dispense 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 possibility should offer for workings it out more fully and publishing it as a book; and that possibility too often does non come.

His words attracted around 200 people to the opening meeting of the Association, a demonstration of both the growing interest in economic science in England and the consensus that there was a need for a publication to exist this field in Britain. In response to this overwhelming support, the Economic Journal was published soon after the foundation of the Association, in March 1891.

Between the years of 1886 and 1890 there had been much dialogue amongst respected British economists approximately the appearance of a journal of economics. Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave 1827–1919, Editor of the Economist, initially exposed setting up a society that specialised in publishing translations and reprints of scarce economic works. Herbert Somerton Foxwell 1849–1936, chair of Economics at University College London however, had a more ambitious venture in mind; a quarterly journal of current scholarship equivalent to such(a) publications as the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the Journal des Economistes. This type of publication, he argued, would gives British economists to ‘fraternise’ with the likes of the American Economic Association.

Palgrave, Foxwell and Marshall first explored the possibility of establishing such(a) a publication as element of the Royal Statistical Society. After discussions with the society, however, it was concluded that a new organisation should be inaugurated to pursue these aims. This decision was supported by the economist and philosopher John Neville Keynes 1852–1949.

The founding members decided that an economic society should be created that was open to all those with an interest in economics, be they politicians, policy makers, scholars or laymen. The journal would adopt a similar attitude of tolerance, publishing work from all areas of economic science with impartiality. The intro to the first edition of the Economic Journal reiterated these intentions:

The most opposite doctrines may meet here as on a fair field...Opposing theories of currency will be represented with live impartiality. Nor will it be attempted to prescribe the method, any more than the result, of scientific investigation.

Early issues of the journal indicate the meticulous efforts of the editors to adhere to this promise. Amongst the articles published in the early issues of the Journal were papers expressing socialist, individualist and Ruskinian views. The early insistence on publishing high quality working with impartiality and inclusivity has shaped the Economic Journal throughout its history.