Mises Daily
Author:
Murray N. Rothbard
Online Publish Date:
[Excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought , vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith (1995). An MP3 audio available for download .] Most people, economists and laymen alike, think that economics sprang full blown, so to speak, from the head of Adam Smith in the late wage theory depends on the supply of labor, which in turn depends on levels and growth of population. In contrast to the later Malthus, however, Cantillon engaged in