What Is the Price of Experience? William Blake and the Economics of Illuminated Painting

The word `Economics' has rarely been used in the context of William Blake. In a way, this is as it should be, for Blake never used the words `economics' or `economy' in his surviving writings, and some of his friends plainly thought that he did not know what`economy' meant. One should not expect that the man who wrote `Bring out number weight and measure in a year of dearth' and `Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity' would have much sympathy with the rich, ugly balance sheets and prudent bottom lines of the Dismal Science.