The Expert Judge of the Just Price

Extract

For a long time we have admired Mr. Penty’s subtle argument for the necessity of the Guild of Experts based on the fundamental necessity of the Just Price. As a work of economic craftsmanship, this argument has long seemed to us to have few rivals, and no answer.

Yet we were never without our misgivings that somewhere in the subtle-simple ratiocination there was something akin to what the metaphysicians would call ‘a passing from the ideal order to the real.’ An uncomfortable feeling that there was a fly in Mr. Penty's translucent amber left us little or no intellectual rest.

We were not concerned to deny the ultimate conclusions drawn by Mr. Penty from his ultimate premisses. Indeed, for a long time, we hesitated to discuss even with ourselves our doubts about his reasoning, lest we should throw doubts upon his conclusions and eventually about his premisses. But in the end our thoughts have taken such definite shape that we cannot withold them from ourselves and even from Mr. Penty himself.