history of economic thought

For these reasons, those inthe middling ranks, merchants and bankers, were more likely to happenonto the road to virtue than those in the lower or upper classes. Andbecause the nouveau riches were the ones to safeguard contractualsettlements, this meant that the core institutions of property andcommerce would, ceteris paribus, be sustained in thecenturies ahead. The merchant or banker, not the knight, had becomethe paragon of honor, serving the national interests as much asthemselves. The fact that individual liberties and religious toleration were moreprevalent in Britain might provide a more plausible explanation as towhy mainstream economic thought was most cultivated in the Englishlanguage over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries(see Mokyr 2009). This is in marked contrast to the natural sciences,which were most concentrated in France in the eighteenth century andin Germany in the nineteenth century.

Usury was particularly problematic because itviolated the natural order, obtaining a yield from an object, money,that was inanimate (Aristotle Politics 1258b). Attention was paid to the history of economic thought (HET) by pioneers of economics such as Dupont de Nemours and Adam Smith. McCulloch in the 19th century used HET to establish a canon of economic literature, and their successor marginalists such as William Stanley Jevons to demonstrate progress in the subject. From the First World War until the 1960s, leading economists, from Jacob Viner to Wesley Mitchell, employed HET to cast light on current research.

  1. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so.
  2. Mainstream economics in the latter part of the twentieth century was largely dominated by the synthesis, being largely Keynesian on macroeconomics and neoclassical on microeconomics (Clark 1998).
  3. Users can refine searches by content type, subject, current of thought, period, notable figure and contributor as well as conduct key word searches.
  4. The school blossomed into one of the most influential schools of thought after Milton Friedman joined the economics faculty in 1946 and then was joined by his long-time friend George J. Stigler in 1958.
  5. Smith believed even the selfish within society were kept under restraint and worked for the good of all when acting in a competitive market.
  6. Keynes challenged the orthodoxy of the day for its failure to adequately account for the mass unemployment which Keynes encountered in the 1930’s.

Graduate School

In the Italian cities, Milan andNaples, Enlightenment circles were renowned for espousing the idealsof pubblica felicità (public happiness) andeconomia civile (civil economy). Some of the leading thinkerswere Antonio Genovesi, Cesare Beccaria, Pietro Verri, and FerdinandoGaliani (see Robertson 2005; Reinert 2018). Portugal housed an activegroup of economic thinkers, notably António de VasconcelosNogueira and Isaac da Pinto (Cardoso 1990). Mainstream economics in the latter part of the twentieth century was largely dominated by the synthesis, being largely Keynesian on macroeconomics and neoclassical on microeconomics (Clark 1998). Introductory university economics courses began with the same approach that pulled the divergent strands of economic thought together, presenting economic theory as a unified whole. Walras’ economic theory included the use of mathematics in economics, the notion of free competition, the notion of utility, and price formation in competitive markets.

Ethics of Commerce and Trade

On top of the supply of money, Keynes identified the propensity to consume, inducement to invest, marginal efficiency of capital, liquidity preference, and multiplier effect as variables which determine the level of the economy’s output, employment, and price levels. Much of this esoteric terminology was invented by Keynes especially for his General Theory. Keynes argued that if savings were being withheld from investment in financial markets, total spending falls, leading to reduced incomes and unemployment, which reduces savings again. This continues until the desire to save becomes equal to the desire to invest, which means a new “equilibrium” is reached and the spending decline halts.

English Language Requirements

history of economic thought

English economist Thomas Mun (1571–1641) describes early mercantilist policy in his book England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade, which was not published until 1664, although it was widely circulated in manuscript form during his lifetime. A member of the East India Company, he wrote about his experiences in A Discourse of Trade from England unto the East Indies (1621). French philosopher and priest Nicolas d’Oresme (1320–1382) wrote De origine, natura, jure et mutationibus monetarum, about the origin, nature, law, and alterations of money. His treatise argues how money or currency belongs to the public, and that the government or sovereign of the economy has no right to control the value of the currency just so that they can profit from it. This included the use of money, which Hume recognized symbolized achain of pledges, extending backward and forward in time.

The latter is determined by its suitability to satisfy needs (virtuositas), its rarity (raritas) and its subjective value (complacibilitas). Due to this subjective component, there cannot only be one just price, but a bandwidth of more or less just prices. He taught in both Cologne and Paris, and was part of a group of Catholic scholars known as the Schoolmen, who moved their enquiries beyond theology to philosophical and scientific debates. In the treatise Summa Theologica Aquinas dealt with the concept of a just price, which he considered necessary for the reproduction of the social order.

Amartya Sen (b. 1933) became well known for his contributions to welfare economics and his work on famine, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, and gender inequality. Expressing considerable skepticism on the validity of neo-classical assumptions, he mounted one of the few major challenges to the economic model that posits self-interest as the prime motivating factor of human activity. His “capability approach” focuses on “positive freedom,” a person’s actual ability to be or do something, rather than on “negative freedom” approaches, which simply focus on non-interference.

Population growth, providing more hands as well as the demand for morecorn and cloth, was viewed as the primary source of economicprosperity history of economic thought for about two centuries, until the alarm bell sounded byThomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principle ofPopulation (1798). Whereas for Hobbes, might made right, Lockegrounded property rights in consent and the virtue of industriousness;those who enclosed and cultivated the land created a right to itsyield that did no harm to one’s neighbors (see Sreenivasan1995). Because children are one’s property, this alsolegitimated the transfer of accumulated wealth via inheritance. Overtime, inequality became salient, as some owned land while others, lessfortunate, were compelled to enter into a wage contract to earn theirbread and ale. Locke, however, underscored the volitional nature ofthese arrangements, forged on equal terms and by “tacitconsent”. In his overview of early modern economics, Hirschman foregrounded whathe called the Montesquieu-Steuart doctrine, namely that internationaltrade induced global peace.

Elaine Vanderberg developed a passion for storytelling from a young age, inspired by her love of reading. Her journey into writing began unexpectedly when her granddaughter requested a bedtime story. This led to the creation of her first book, "Chloe," and sparked a series of stories addressing common childhood challenges, including "Timmie, the Timid Cloud," "Sammie the Sad Salamander," and "Cora, an All Alone Girl." Vanderberg aims to empower children through her narratives, instilling the belief that they can overcome obstacles and succeed if they have faith in themselves. Her books are a heartfelt blend of imagination and valuable life lessons.
Elaine Vanderberg

Share This
Skip to content