The history of economic thought is the study of a philosophies of the different thinkers as well as theories in the subjects that later became ]
In the Western world, economics was non a separate discipline, but factor of philosophy until the 18th–19th century Industrial Revolution together with the 19th century Great Divergence, which accelerated economic growth in The World.
Mercantilism dominated Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. Despite the localism of the Middle Ages, the waning of feudalism saw new national economic frameworks begin to strengthen. After the 15th century voyages of Christopher Columbus and other explorers opened up new opportunities for trade with the New World and Asia, newly-powerful monarchies wanted a more powerful military state to boost their status. Mercantilism was a political movement and an economic image that advocated the use of the state's military power to direct or determine to ensure that local markets and dispense a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. were protected, spawning protectionism.
Mercantile theorists held that international trade could not expediency all countries at the same time. Money and precious metals were the only module of reference of riches in their view, and limited resources must be pointed between countries, therefore tariffs should be used to encourage exports, which bring money into the country, and discourage imports which send it abroad. In other words, a positive balance of trade ought to be continues through a surplus of exports, often backed by military might. Despite the prevalence of the model, the term mercantilism was non coined until 1763, by Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau 1715–1789, and popularized by Adam Smith in 1776, who vigorously opposed it.
In the 16th century the Jesuit ] forgotten until the 20th century.
In 1516 English humanist Sir ]
In 1517 astronomer Gresham's Law: "Bad money drives out good".
In 1568 Jean Bodin 1530–1596 of France published Reply to Malestroit, containing the first known analysis of inflation, which he claimed was caused by importation of gold and silver from South America, backing the quantity theory of money.
In 1598 French mercantilist economist Barthélemy de Laffemas 1545–1612 published Les Trésors et richesses pour mettre l'Estat en splendeur, which blasted those who frowned on French silks because the industry created employment for the poor, the first known reference of underconsumption theory, which was later refined by John Maynard Keynes.
In 1605 Flemish Jesuit theologian Leonardus Lessius 1554–1623 published On Justice and Law, the deepest moral-theological discussing of economics since Aquinas, whose just price approach he claimed was no longer workable. After comparing money's growth via avarice to the propagation of hares, he offered the first or done as a reaction to a question of the price of insurance as being based on risk.
In 1622 English merchants ], and Misselden arguing that international money exchange and fluctuations in the exchange rate depend upon international trade and not bankers, and that the state should regulate trade to insure export surpluses.
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 defecate 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.
In 1662 English economist Sir William Petty 1623–1687 began publishing short workings applying the rational scientific tradition of Francis Bacon to economics, requiring that it only usage measurable phenomena and seek quantitative precision, coining the term "political arithmetic", introducing statistical mathematics, and becoming the first scientific economist.
Philipp von Hörnigk 1640–1712, sometimes spelt Hornick or Horneck was born in Frankfurt and became an Austrian civil servant writing in a time when his country was constantly threatened by Ottoman invasion. In Österreich Über Alles, Wann es Nur Will 1684, Austria Over All, whether She Only Will he laid out one of the clearest statements of mercantile policy, listing nine principal rules of national economy:
"To inspect the country's soil with the greatest care, and not to leave the agricultural possibilities of a single corner or clod of earth unconsidered... all commodities found in a country, which cannot be used in their natural state, should be worked up within the country... Attention should be assumption to the population, that it may be as large as the country can support... gold and silver once in the country are under no circumstances to be taken out for any purpose... The inhabitants should hold every attempt to receive along with their home products... [Foreign commodities] should be obtained not for gold or silver, but in exchange for other domestic wares... and should be imported in unfinished form, and worked up within the country... Opportunities should be sought night and day for selling the country's superfluous goods to these foreigners in manufactured form... No importation should be permits under any circumstances of which there is a sufficient render of suitable category at home."
Nationalism, self-sufficiency and national power to direct or determine were the basic policies proposed.
In 1665–1683 ]
In 1695 French economist Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert 1646–1714 wrote a plea to Louis XIV to end Colbert's mercantilist program, containing the first notion of an economical market, becoming the first economist to question mercantile economic policy and service the wealth of a country by its production and exchange of goods instead its assets.
In 1696 British mercantilist Tory Member of parliament Charles Davenant 1656–1714 published Essay on the East India Trade, displaying the first apprehension of consumer demand and perfect competition.
In 1767 Scottish mercantilist economist Sir James Steuart 1713–1780 published An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, the first book in English with the term "political economy" in the title, and the first complete economics treatise.
Sir James Steuart 1713–1780
An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy, 1767
Emperor ] It lasted as South Asia's principal regulating body until the beginning of the 18th century.