Introduction

This chapter focuses on the intellectual history of the following theories: the invisible hand, comparative advantage, the law of markets, and the quantity theory of money. Kenneth Arrow and Frank Hahn, despite being critical of the invisible-hand proposition, have characterized it the most important intellectual contribution that economic thought has made to the general understanding of social processes. The theory of comparative advantage has served as the basis for supporting free trade among all countries. The law of markets regards production as the primary economic activity. It operates on the premise that human beings have an innate and insatiable desire for consumption of goods and services. The quantity theorists maintain the fluctuations in the supply of money play a significant role in the economy. The chapter has made a contribution to this process by delineating the intricacies of the central economics theories.