He wrote a consumer's theory of value.

But whereas he had in mind a happy and contented people, the economics of Ricardo and Malthus seized upon a single element in human nature as that which alone the State must serve.

Freedom from restraint came ultimately to mean a judgment upon national well-being in terms of the volume of trade.

"It is not with happiness," said Nassau Senior, "but with wealth that I am concerned as a political economist; and I am not only justified in omitting, but am perhaps bound to omit, all considerations which have no influence upon wealth." In such an aspect, it was natural for the balance of investigation to swing towards the study of the technique of production; and with the growing importance of capital, as machinery was introduced, the worker, without difficulty, became an adjunct, easily replaced, to the machine.
What was remembered then was the side of Adam Smith which looked upon enlightened selfishness as the key to social good.

Regulation became anathema even when the evils it attempted to restrain were those which made the mass of the people incapable of citizenship.