The page ‘Older Thought‘, on the Economic Thought tab, has now been provisionally signed off.

The summary of the page is reproduced below.  Some of the economic concepts that originated during the period covered by the page are indicated in italics:-

The page started with an account of ancient Greek society, based on slavery, which gave its privileged class the leisure to pursue the arts and enquire into the nature of the world.

In Greek economics, the legacies of Plato – division of labour – and Aristotle – the origin of money, use value and exchange value, commensurability, private property natural and unnatural uses of trade and commerce – were outlined.

The Christian Scholastic Philosophers were then discussed, with regard to their developing views on usury (a legacy of Aristotle’s dim view of interest on loans), and on their concern with how to determine the ‘Just price’ in a Christian society.  A gradual relaxation in their views on usury occurred over many, many years.

Robbins described a debate amongst later academics regarding early middle age views about the way in which prices were arrived at.  Robbins supported the view that prices were seen to be determined during an essentially market process, rejecting the alternate view – that prices were based on production costs, especially the cost of labour.

The vast literature of Pamphleteering was described next, bringing the time broadly up to the late 16^th /early 17^th centuries.  Here interest groups, civil servants and individuals circulated their views on taxation, subsidies, protective tariffs and so on.  Against the background of those times, which included the rise of nation states, voyages of discovery and the Reformation of the Christian church, two main issues were discussed – the debasement of the currency and early discussion of the quantity theory of money.

Turning to the Mercantilist thinking of those times, the concept of bullionism, alongside the perceived imperative of a positive balance of trade, was described.  On one side was the view that wealth was limited, most importantly represented by gold and silver bullion; and that trade was a zero sum process involving a gain by one party and a loss by the other.  On the other side were views that wealth was limitless and depended ultimately on the product of human labour.

The contributions of William Petty, born in 1623, then followed.  Petty started as a cabin boy at 14, but eventually became the widely qualified secretary to Thomas Hobbes and Physician General with Cromwell’s Army.

In economics he pioneered quantitative measurement, and an essentially modern investigatory method using empirical evidence and deductive thinking.  In economic theory he expounded an early version of the labour theory of value, eventually arguing that economic value derives from a combination of land and labour – and that a natural par could be found between them in order to express value by either alone.

Petty contributed a wide breadth of other economic insights including the rate of rent of land, relative to its capital value; the circulation velocity and multiplier effect of money; the importance of national accounting and proportionate taxation; and public works to counter unemployment.

The page concludes with Robbins discussion of the views of John Locke, philosopher and Enlightenment thinker, often called the ‘Father of Liberalism’.

Locke’s contributions to economic included the ideas of a natural rate of interest, a refined quantity theory of money, velocity of circulation of money, devaluation and inflation.  He also discusses the influence of supply and demand on value, and explores market price.  In a consideration of taxation he argued that most tax, in those and previous times, fell on landowners.

Locke was praised by William Letwin for perceiving ‘broad underlying forces’ at work in his explorations of natural influences on interest, price and value – edging, says Robbins, towards the idea of systematic processes at work.

Further discussion of the development of economic theory continues on the page ‘Pre Political Economy‘, also on the Economic Thought tab.  The page turns to the emergence  of systems thinking, applied to economic matters.