ABSTRACT
Econometrics is nothing but the explicit recognition of this rather obvious fact, and the attempt to face the consequences of it. We might even go so far as to say that by virtue of it every economist is an econometrician whether he wants to be or not, provided he deals with this sector of our science and not, for example, with the history of organization of enterprise, the cultural aspects of economic life, economic motive, the philosophy of private property, and so on. If econometricians have any wish to imitate other people and to glory in heroic ancestry, they may with justice claim the great name of Sir William Petty as their own. The second part of the seventeenth century is full of vigorous ventures into the field of econometrics—one has but to point to Gregory King's statistical demand curve. In all this the econometric line stands out clearly. In all this the econometric line stands out clearly.
