Alfred Marshall’s economics
Alfred Marshall, known as the founder of the neoclassical school of economics. He was one of the most influential economic scholars of all time. Alfred Marshall was born in 1842 and grew up in London; he is the son of a cashier at the Bank of England. Although his father wanted him to become a clergy, he defied his father’s wish and refused to go to Oxford with a classics scholarship, and then he attended Cambridge University, where he studied economics, mathematics and physics. Actually, Marshall studied physics at the beginning, but he experienced a mental crisis therefore he gave up it and turned it to philosophy. He began with metaphysics and it led him to ethics, particularly a version of utilitarianism. In the end, it led him to economics. Although he switched to economics, his ethical ideas still to be a dominant force in his thinking.

In 1865, Marshall was elected to a fellowship at St John’s College at Cambridge, and became one of the lecturers in the College. In 1875, he traveled to United States to probe prominent issues, which could help him to get further perspective on economics. He assumed if material prosperity was to be realized and disseminated, it would have to be assisted by social and political agents as well rather than just relying on economic theory. In 1877, he married Mar Paley, one of the students at Newnham Hall(later Newnham College) , then he left the Cambridge, and became a professor of