ABSTRACT
Sixty years ago, when I began to study economics, there was no sharp line of division between economists and economic historians. Most of the great names in economics from Adam Smith to Keynes, not forgetting Malthus, Mill, Marx, and Marshall, showed a keen interest in history, sometimes deriving their theories from historical evidence, sometimes turning to the past to show the bearing of their theories on policy. The Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at Glasgow, W.R.Scott, was a distinguished economic historian, the author of a three-volume study of Joint stock companies to 1720 (which, however, none of us ever opened). We were introduced to economics by way of the Mercantilists and the Physiocrats and not allowed to complete the honours course without including a paper in economic history.
