74 SOCIAL SCIENTIST 60ff). The evolution of an economic system — the articulation of its internal structure—can be understood only by considering the conjuction of external and internal forces which influence it. It is widely recognised that technological change is one of the central processes behind modem economic growth. But the theory of development that Kuznets was moving towards has remained a project largely unrealised within the corpus of modern economics. That the study of ah alternate source may yield better results is bome out by the following quotation from a work written in the middle years of the 19th century : "The relations of different nations among themselves depend upon the extent to which each has developed its productive forces, the division of labour and internal intercourse. This proposition is generally recognised. But not only the relations of one nation to others, but also the whole internal structure of the nation itself depends on the stage of development reached by its production and its internal and external intercourse. How far the productive forces of a nation are developed is shown most manifestly by the degree to which the division of labour has been carried". (Marx and Engels, 1846). All the ingredients for a scientific study are there—the direct association between "technological change" and "development", the theory of external relations as an extension of the study of internal adaptations,—the list could be expanded, and a considerable case could be made for bypassing the entire tortuous terrain of modern economic theory and going directly to the heart of the classical tradition of political economy. That this move should be accompanied by the rejection of the physicalist model of economic planning, and the adoption of an explicitly political paradigm which acknowledges that the path of development is determined primarily through political struggle is borne out by a further citation from the mid-19th century :"... The various stages of development of the division of labour are just so many different forms of property. ...The existing stage in the division of labour also determines the relations of the individuals to one another with reference to the material, instrument, and product of labour....". (Ibid). And since property, as a 17th century thinker (Hobbes) has pointed out, is the "constitution ofMine, and Thine, andHis", or in other words, "the distribution of the materials" of nourishment, it is clear that a theory of technological change and development that overlooks distribution, is not likely to get very far. REFERENCES 1. Bemal, L D.: The Social Function of Science, Macmillan and Co, New York, 1939. 2. Bhagwati, J.: "On How to Decide What to Import and What to Produce", Oxford Economic Papers, Vol. 14, No. 1, February 1962, pp. 114-6 3. Bhagwati J. and Chakravarti S. "Contributions to Indian Economic Analysis". American Economic Review. 1969. 4. Hobsbawm. E. J.: Industry and Empire. Harmonds^iorth, England, 1969. 5. Kuznets, Simon: Secular Movements in Production and Prices, National Bureau ot' Economic Research, Washington, circa 1930.