The History of Economic Thought

From the ancients to the moderns, questions of economic theory and policy have been an important part of intellectual and public debate, engaging the attention of some of history''s greatest minds.

This collection of readings covers the major themes that have preoccupied economic thinkers throughout the ages, including price determination and the underpinnings of the market system, monetary theory and policy, international trade and finance, income distribution, and the appropriate role for government within the economic system. These ideas unfold, develop, and change course over time at the hands of scholars such as Aristotle, François Quesnay, David Hume, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, and John Maynard Keynes. Each reading has been selected with a view to both enlightening the reader as to the major contributions of the author in question and to giving the reader a broad view of the development of economic thought and analysis over time.

The History of Economic Thought: A Reader can be used as a core textbook or as a supplementary text on courses in economic thought and philosophy. It will provide readers with a good foundation in the different schools of thought that run through economics.

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Table of contents : Part 1: Pre-Classical Thought, Introductory Notes 1. Politics and Ethics (300s B.C.), Aristotle 2. Summa Theologica (1267-73), St. Thomas Aquinas 3. A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions (1662), Sir William Petty 4. England's Treasure by Foreign Trade (1664), Thomas Mun 5. Two Treatises of Government (1690) and Some Considerations of the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest, and Raising the Value of Money (1691), John Locke 6. Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Generale (1755), Richard Cantillon 7. Tableau Economique (1758), Francois Quesnay 8. Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth (1770), Anne Robert Jacques Turgot 9. Fable of the Bees (1732), Bernard MandevillePart 2: The Classical School, Introductory Notes 10. Political Discourses (on money, interest, and the balance of trade) (1752), David Hume 11. Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith 12. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), Manual of Political Economy (1795), Anarchical Fallacies (1795), Principles of the Civil Code (1802), Jeremy Bentham 13. Essay on Population (1798), Thomas Malthus 14. Of Population (1820), William Godwin 15. Paper Credit (1802), Henry Thornton 16. The High Price of Bullion (1810) David Ricardo 17. A Treatise on Political Economy (1821), Jean -Baptiste Say 18. Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817) David Ricardo 19. Principles of Political Economy (1820), Thomas Malthus 20. Elements of Political Economy (1826), James Mill 21. An Outline of Political Economy (1836), Nassau Senior 22. Principles of Political Economy (1848), J.S. Mill Part 3: The Marxian Challenge, Introductory Notes 23. Critique of Political Economy (1859), Capital (1867), Karl Marx Part 4: The Marginal Revolution, Introductory Notes 24. Theory of Political Economy (1871), William Stanley Jevons 25. Principles of Economics (1871), Carl Menger 26. Elements of Pure Economics (1874), Leon Walras 27. Mathematical Psychics (1881), F.Y. Edgeworth 28. Principles of Economics (1890/1920), Alfred Marshall 29. The Positive Theory of Capital (1891), Eugen Böhm-BawerkPart 5: The Development of Macroeconomics, Introductory Notes 30. The Influence of the Rate of Interest on Prices (1907), Knut Wicksell 31. The Rate of Interest (1907) and The Purchasing Power of Money (1911) Irving Fisher 32. The End of Laissez-Faire (1926), The General Theory of Employment (1937) and The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) John Maynard KeynesPart 6: Institutional Economics, Introductory Notes 33. The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Thorstein Veblen 34. Institutional Economics (1931), John R. Commons