ABSTRACT
Adam Smith is the founder of economics as a branch of social science, not only because he pointed the way, but because others followed the direction indicated. No man, whatever his merits, can be a leader without followers. Unlike the Physiocrats, however, those who ‘followed’ Adam Smith did not do so as disciples dedicated to spreading the wisdom of the master. They were independent students of economic matters who, though recognizing the brilliance of Adam Smith in delineating the questions or problems of economic theory, were as often as not convinced that his answers were inadequate or wrong. So there developed, during the next two generations, a large body of writings on economic questions which historians now describe as classical political economy. The most important names in this literature are Thomas Robert Malthus (1776-1834), David Ricardo (1772-1823), and John Stuart Mill (1806-73). Karl Marx (1818-83) also belongs to this phase in the historical development of economic theory, but we shall study his ideas in a separate chapter (Chapter 13).
