The Origins of Marginalism.

The article provides information concerning the history of marginalism in relation to political economy. The term marginalism was formed by John A. Hobson in his book "Work and Wealth" when he needed an expression to cover the acceptance by economists of both marginal utility and marginal productivity and the word was infrequently applied in the twenty-five years after Hobson's innovation The widespread employment of marginal cost, marginal revenue, and marginal propensity to consume in economic analysis during the 1930's caused Richard A. Lester to complain that the details of marginalism were consuming one-half to one-third of the leading American textbooks. A recognizable and continuous history of marginalism started with the advent of the quality termed as marginal utility.