Was John Stuart Mill a Classical Economist

Raising the type of question stated in the title of this paper implies a strong definitional and classificatory intent: what are the qualities which make a particular economic writer a classical economist? It also suggests the question whether such a classification is still worthwhile when it is well known that there are various approaches to the meaning of classical economics which give different answers to the question posed in the title of this paper. Answering whether John Stuart Mill is a classical economist sheds light on this ambiguity. In what follows, the case made in the literature for treating Mill as a classical economist is summarised in Part i, the case against in Part ii, while the final section offers conclusions whether terms like classical economics still have a useful function in history of economic thought discourse.