Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hunt, E.K.
• Lautzenheiser, Mark

Titel

Economic Ideas Before Adam Smith

Ist Teil von

• History of Economic Thought, 2011, p.23-39

Auflage

3

Ort / Verlag

United Kingdom: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The early mercantilists generally abandoned the cost-of-production approach to the understanding of prices and focused on the point of sale to analyze exchange values. One scholar of mercantilist ideas has concluded that, despite a wide range of differences on specific issues, three important notions run through most early mercantilist writings on value theory. The clearest precursor of the classical economists' labour theory of value was the anonymous author of a pamphlet published in 1738 called Some Thoughts on the Interest of Money in General. From the capitalists' views of the nature of humanity and their need to be free from the extensive economic restrictions grew the philosophy of individualism that provided the basis of classical liberalism. One of the most important examples of the individualist and middle-class philosophy was the Protestant theology. It should be stated that very few of the economists prior to Adam Smith presented the same kind of coherent, elaborate analyses of the economic processes of capitalism.