Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) and Jacques Turgot (1727-1781)

Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) and Jacques Turgot (1727-1781)
Author: Mark Blaug
Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub
Total Pages: 301
Release: 1991-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781852784713

Richard Cantillon was an Irish refugee who fled to France after the defeat of James II. As a business associate of John Law he sold stock on a rising market and made a fortune from the Mississippi Bubble. His one great book 'Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General' circulated widely among French and English economic writers and was widely quoted and even plagiarised by amongst others Hume, Turgot, Mirabeau, Stewart and Adam Smith.

Richard Cantillon

Richard Cantillon
Author: Tony Brewer
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2002-06-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 113490374X

Richard Cantillon, writing fifty years before Adam Smith, was the first to see the economy as an interrelated whole, and the first to give a coherent account of how it works. This is the first comprehensive study of his economic theory and of his place in the history of the subject.

The Origins of David Hume's Economics

The Origins of David Hume's Economics
Author: Willie Henderson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 525
Release: 2010-10-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1136948392

The book covers Hume’s biographical development; his self appraisal as a 'man of letters’; his philosophical writings with emphasis on their direct and indirect economic content; his self-aware criticism of his approach to the Treatise and the development of his rhetorical understanding of the needs/interests of his readers/potential readers; his rhetorical turn and Ciceronian adjustments to his writing within the genre of the essay, including his two Enquiries; his political essays and his nine essays conventionally classified as economic. The work aims to show how the Treatise and its vicissitudes gave rise to his economics. The work takes a broad approach to Hume and his writings on economic topics from the Treatise, through the Enquires and on to his political and economic essay. The work also explores Hume’s textual method and charts the move from abstruse philosophy to a Ciceronian engagement with social conditions and problems as developed in the Political Discourses. In addition, Hume’s extensive use of analogies is also brought into clearer focus than is found in other texts. Overall, the book will be of great use to both postgraduates and undergraduates alike.

The Rhetoric of Tenses in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

The Rhetoric of Tenses in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations
Author: Hye-Joon Yoon
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2017-11-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 900435686X

The Rhetoric of Tenses in Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” examines the tenses of the predicates in the famous and typical passages of the monumental work to explore the intricacies of the rhetoric and argument they support, paying particular attention to the question of temporality. Smith’s subtle modulation of language attests to his reluctance to offer a mere theory of economics and to his refusal to ignore the complicated challenges history and actuality offer to his beliefs in the natural system of liberty. The theoretical frame of the book is derived from the grammarians of Smith’s age, in particular James Harris. The supple interdisciplinary approach of this book invites literary and publishing histories to converse with intellectual history.

The History of Economic Thought

The History of Economic Thought
Author: Steven G Medema
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1127
Release: 2013-05-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1136742956

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 book brings together readings from more than two thousand years of writings on economic subjects. Through these selections, the reader can see first-hand how the great minds of past grappled with some of the central social and economic issues of their times and, in the process, enhanced our understanding of how economic systems function. 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, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, François Quesnay, David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, William Stanley Jevons, Alfred Marshall, Irving Fisher, Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, and Paul Samuelson. 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. This book will be useful for students, scholars, and lay people with an interest in the history of economic thought and the history of ideas generally.

Our elusive quest for prosperity

Our elusive quest for prosperity
Author: David Castells-Quintana
Publisher: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2021-09-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 8449098777

We all want to have a prosperous life. We want to be happy. The pursuit of prosperity has indeed been a long quest for the human race. But what does it mean to be prosperous? Is it having material possessions such as clothes, furniture and electrical appliances? Or jewellery, cars and property? We want a vast range of things. We also crave new experiences, whether it’s playing sport, going to the cinema or traveling to new places. And we usually want it all; the more the better. And often, all is not enough. In 'Our Elusive Quest for Prosperity', David Castells-Quintana brings together, in a brief and easy-to-read book, centuries of economic thought: from the ideas of past empires and civilizations, the economic thinking of medieval times, the lessons of classical economists, Marxism, neoclassical economics and Keynesianism, to the neoliberal revolution and the most important contributions of modern times. All to help us understand the meaning of true wealth, the way we collectively work to achieve it, and the challenges we face in our elusive quest for shared prosperity and individual welfare.

A History of Economic Thought in France

A History of Economic Thought in France
Author: Gilbert Faccarello
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2023-10-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429511035

Traditionally, there has been a long and sustained interest in studying the history of economic ideas in France. Interest appeared to wane after World War II, but in recent decades, there has been a marked renaissance of interest and research in the contributions of French-speaking authors. Drawing on the flow of recent research, this book presents a new assessment of the history of political economy in France incorporating both novel presentations of some traditional subjects and topics that are not usually studied. This first volume deals with the history of political economy in France in the Age of Enlightenment. After presenting a kind of “review of the troops” and some main developments inherited from preceding centuries, the chapters are devoted to P. de Boisguilbert’s foundation of liberal political economy; J. Law’s monetary theory and policy; the many strands of “commerce politique”; the theoretical developments of F. Quesnay and the physiocratic movement; and A.-R.-J. Turgot’s, J.-J.-L. Graslin’s and M.-J.-A.-N. Caritat de Condorcet’s sensationist political economy. The volume then examines some political critiques of liberal political economy and goes on with a study of the first attempts to quantify economic variables and to formalise the economic discourse. It concludes with a chapter on the importance of translations into French of books published abroad, and with the main institutional and theoretical developments which happened during the French Revolution. A History of Economic Thought in France will be invaluable reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, intellectual history and French history.

Enlightenment Thought

Enlightenment Thought
Author: Margaret L. King
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2019-02-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1624667554

"Margaret L. King has put together a highly representative selection of readings from most of the more significant—but by no means the most obvious—texts by the authors who made up the movement we have come to call the 'Enlightenment.' They range across much of Europe and the Americas, and from the early seventeenth century until the end of the eighteenth. In the originality of the choice of texts, in its range and depth, this collection offers both wide coverage and striking insights into the intellectual transformation which has done more than any other to shape the world in which we live today. It is simply the best introduction to the subject now available." —Anthony Pagden, UCLA, and author of The Enlightenment and Why It Still Matters

Intangible Flow Theory in Economics

Intangible Flow Theory in Economics
Author: Tiago Cardao-Pito
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2020-12-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351580280

The dominant economic explanations of the 20th century are not comprehensive enough to describe the complexity of economy and society and their reliance on the biosphere. Intangible Flow Theory in Economics: Human Participation in Economic and Societal Production outlines a new theory that challenges both economics and the relativism conveyed in social constructivism, poststructuralism and postmodernism. To mainstream economics and Marxism, monetary flows transform us humans into commodities. To this new theory, flows of economic elements as physical goods or money are consummated by intangible flows that cannot yet be precisely appraised at an actual or approximate value, for instance, workflows, service flows, information flows or communicational flows. The theory suggests a systematic alternative to refute the human commodity framework and interrelated conjectures (e.g. human capital, human resources, human assets). Furthermore, it exhibits that economic and societal production is fully integrated on the biosphere. Conversely, contemporary relativism argues for the end of theory development, suspension of evidence and entrenchment of knowledge validity among local systems (named as paradigms, epistemes, research programs, truth regimes or other terms). Thus, relativism tacitly supports dominant theories as the human commodity framework because it preventively sabotages the creation of new theoretical explanations. Disputing relativist theses, intangible flow theory demonstrates that innovative theoretical explanations remain possible. This book is of significant interest to students and scholars of political economy, economic sociology, organization, economics and social theory.