The Origins of Scientific Economics

This book illustrates how the first social science, that of economics, was built. It examines and discusses the work of Josiah Child, Nicholas Barbon, John Collins, William Petty, John Locke and Dudley North and the economic theories of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Part 1 The Old Style; Chapter 1 Sir Josiah Child, Merchant Economist; Chapter 2 Nicholas Barbon, Projector; Part 2 The New Style; Chapter 3 Science and Objectivity in the Seventeenth Century; Chapter 4 John Collins; Mathematics and Economics; Chapter 5 Sir William Petty; Political Arithmetic; Chapter 6 John Locke: Philosopher as Economist; Chapter 7 Sir Dudley North; a Deductive Theory; Part 3 The Legacy; Chapter 8 Economic Theories during the Eighteenth Century; Appendices; A Bibliography of Josiah Child; Index of Sources for Child’s List of Dutch Practices; The Great Recoinage: an alternative estimate; The Authorship of Sir Dudley North’s Discourses upon Trade; Locke’s Early Manuscript on Interest;