The years 1816–34 saw the emergence of a popular, workingclass political economy viewed by its adherents as distinct from and antagonistic to classical doctrines and looking, for the most part, to anti-capitalist and socialist writers for inspiration. By the early 1830s classical authors and their popularisers were being vigorously rejected by most of those in the working-class press who concerned themselves with economic questions. Yet they did not stop short at mere rejection and, for the most part, eschewed anti-intellectualist attitudes to the discipline of political economy. On the contrary, writers in the working-class press of the 1830s recognised and stressed the importance of a knowledge of political economy, distinguishing the manner in which it could be applied to lay bare the causes of working-class grievances from the manner in which it was abused and reduced to the status of apologetics by classical authors. Classical writers were accused of elaborating theories which bore little relation to the objectively observed economic facts of exploitation, poverty and general depression; of formulating, instead, theories designed to defend the interests of capitalists and landowners; of obfuscating the true causes of general impoverishment and material distress suffered by the labouring classes; of constructing a political economy purged of any ethical dimension; of concerning themselves exclusively with how to maximise the rate of capital accumulation rather than how to optimise the distribution of wealth and, therefore, viewing Man as a means of increasing production rather than regarding his welfare as the sole goal of economic activity.