Editing Economics (section)

=== From antiquity through the physiocrats ===
[[File:Lorrain.seaport.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A 1638 painting of a French seaport during the heyday of [[mercantilism]]|alt=A seaport with a ship arriving]]
Questions regarding distribution of resources are found throughout the writings of the [[Boeotia]]n poet [[Hesiod]] and several economic historians have described Hesiod as the "first economist".<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle
|1 = {{cite book|last=Gordan|first=Barry J.|title=Economic analysis before Adam Smith: Hesiod to Lessius|publisher=MacMillan|date=1975|page=3|isbn=978-1-349-02116-1|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-02116-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YReyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3}}
|2 = {{cite book|last=Brockway|first=George P.|title=The End of Economic Man: An Introduction to Humanistic Economics|edition=4th|date=2001|page=128|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-05039-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8ZhZFqUl7kC|access-date=18 September 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414142715/https://books.google.com/books?id=i8ZhZFqUl7kC|url-status=live}}
}}</ref> However, the word [[Oikos]], the Greek word from which the word economy derives, was used for issues regarding how to manage a household (which was understood to be the landowner, his family, and his slaves<ref>{{Cite book |last=Backhouse |first=Roger |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59475581 |title=The Penguin history of economics |date=2002 |publisher=Penguin Adult |isbn=0-14-026042-0 |oclc=59475581 |access-date=3 June 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730075150/https://www.worldcat.org/title/penguin-history-of-economics/oclc/59475581 |url-status=live }}</ref>) rather than to refer to some normative societal system of distribution of resources, which is a more recent phenomenon.<ref>Cameron, Gregory. (2008). Oikos and Economy: The Greek Legacy in Economic Thought.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Oikos Meaning in Bible – New Testament Greek Lexicon – New American Standard|url=https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/oikos.html|access-date=2021-11-19|website=biblestudytools.com|language=en|archive-date=19 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119121115/https://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/oikos.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Jameson|first=Michael H.|date=2015-12-22|title=houses, Greek|url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-3169|access-date=2021-11-19|website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics|language=en|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3169|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5|archive-date=19 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119121120/https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-3169|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Xenophon]], the author of the [[Oeconomicus]], is credited by [[Philology|philologues]] for being the source of the word economy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lowry |first=S. Todd |title=Xenophons Oikonomikos, Über einen Klassiker der Haushaltsökonomie |publisher=Verlag Wirtschaft und Finanzen |year=1998 |isbn=3878811276 |location=[[Düsseldorf]] |pages=77 |language=de}}</ref> [[Joseph Schumpeter]] described 16th and 17th century [[Second scholasticism|scholastic]] writers, including [[Tomás de Mercado]], [[Luis de Molina]], and [[Juan de Lugo]], as "coming nearer than any other group to being the 'founders' of scientific economics" as to [[Monetary economics|monetary]], [[interest#Theories of interest|interest]], and [[microeconomics|value]] theory within a [[natural law|natural-law]] perspective.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schumpeter |first=Joseph A. |date=1954 |title=History of Economic Analysis |publisher=Routledge |pages=97, 101, 112|isbn=978-0-415-10888-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pl4DABZfGREC&pg=PA97}}</ref>

Two groups, who later were called "mercantilists" and "physiocrats", more directly influenced the subsequent development of the subject. Both groups were associated with the rise of [[economic nationalism]] and [[History of capitalism#Merchant capitalism and mercantilism|modern capitalism]] in Europe. [[Mercantilism]] was an economic doctrine that flourished from the 16th to 18th century in a prolific pamphlet literature, whether of merchants or statesmen. It held that a nation's wealth depended on its accumulation of gold and silver. Nations without access to mines could obtain gold and silver from trade only by selling goods abroad and restricting imports other than of gold and silver. The doctrine called for importing inexpensive raw materials to be used in manufacturing goods, which could be exported, and for state regulation to impose protective [[tariff]]s on foreign manufactured goods and prohibit manufacturing in the colonies.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{cite encyclopedia |title=Mercantilism |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=26 August 2016 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/mercantilism |access-date=24 October 2017 |archive-date=31 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031160310/https://www.britannica.com/topic/mercantilism |url-status=live }}|{{harvp|Blaug|2017|page=343}}.}}</ref>

[[Physiocrats]], a group of 18th-century French thinkers and writers, developed the idea of the economy as a [[circular flow]] of income and output. Physiocrats believed that only agricultural production generated a clear surplus over cost, so that agriculture was the basis of all wealth.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bertholet|first=Auguste|date=2021|title=Constant, Sismondi et la Pologne|url=https://www.slatkine.com/fr/editions-slatkine/75250-book-05077807-3600120175625.html|journal=Annales Benjamin Constant|volume=46|pages=78–81|access-date=20 January 2022|archive-date=12 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512143530/https://www.slatkine.com/fr/editions-slatkine/75250-book-05077807-3600120175625.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Thus, they opposed the mercantilist policy of promoting manufacturing and trade at the expense of agriculture, including import tariffs. Physiocrats advocated replacing administratively costly tax collections with a single tax on income of land owners. In reaction against copious mercantilist trade regulations, the physiocrats advocated a policy of ''[[laissez-faire]]'',<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bertholet |first1=Auguste |url=https://www.sgeaj.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bertholet-kapossy-la-physiocratie-et-la-suisse-2023.pdf |title=La Physiocratie et la Suisse |last2=Kapossy |first2=Béla |publisher=Slatkine |year=2023 |isbn=9782051029391 |location=Geneva |language=fr}}</ref> which called for minimal government intervention in the economy.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle
|1 = {{cite encyclopedia|title=Physiocrat|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online|date=7 March 2014|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/physiocrat|access-date=24 October 2017|archive-date=25 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025023645/https://www.britannica.com/topic/physiocrat|url-status=live}}
|2 = {{cite book|last=Blaug|first=Mark|title=Economic Theory in Retrospect|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nd6alor2goC&pg=PA24|edition=5th|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57701-4|pages=24–29, 82–84}}
}}</ref>

[[Adam Smith]] (1723–1790) was an early economic theorist.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=E. K.|title=History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=duYaugxYHdIC&pg=PA36|year=2002|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-0606-8|page=36}}</ref> Smith was harshly critical of the mercantilists but described the physiocratic system "with all its imperfections" as "perhaps the purest approximation to the truth that has yet been published" on the subject.<ref>{{cite book|last=Skousen|first=Mark|title=The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers|url=https://archive.org/details/makingo_sko_2001_00_5649|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-0479-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/makingo_sko_2001_00_5649/page/36 36]}}</ref>