In its origins the utility school was strongly influenced by a desire to strengthen the potentially apologetic character of economics. - Eric Roll, Baron Roll of Ipsden

Robbed of a foundation of political philosophy on which it had based itself, economics is in great danger of becoming a plaything of lordship and its exclusive hold on political services and philosophical concepts.

Marx is often claimed as inventor of the class struggle while a critical rebuttal is produced by English socialist forerunners, for example Burke.

The expenses of the royal household, wars, and lavish public building were financed by tolls and the profits of the king's foreign trade monopoly, by conscription of labour and heavy taxation. The results were impoverishment of the masses, alienation of land, and the development of a proletariat.