Léon Walras: Elements of Theoretical Economics: Or, The Theory of Social Wealth

In his fourth edition of Elements of Theoretical Economics (1900), León Walras introduced the device of written pledges to eliminate path dependency: sellers of products and services write out commitments to supply certain quantities at suggested prices with no commodities actually produced and supplied until a set of prices is found at which supply and demand are equal simultaneously in every market. This brought about very serious alterations to the character of the book. Unfortunately, t...