Westergaard, Jevons and an Early Contribution to Constrained Optimization.

This paper discusses an early application of differential calculus in the analysis of constrained production and utility maximization problems. In his letter of July 1978 to W. S. Jevons, which has only recently been published, H. Westergaard demonstrated the importance and fruitfulness of the application of differential calculus to economic problems. In so doing, he anticipated major aspects of later applications by L. Walras, V. Pareto, and F. Y. Edgeworth in exchange models and in elementary mathematics for economists. If Jevon's second edition of Theory of Political Economy had incorporated the elegant mathematics developed by Westergaard, both scholar's independent contribution may have attained the accolades of the great masters. Copyright 1990 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester