ABSTRACT
In economics, scientific development has closely reflected the political temper of the times. One would expect this from a subject intimately involved in the welfare of people and the distribution of wealth. As a separate, clearly-defined field of study, economics emerged in the eighteenth century. From that point until the late nineteenth century it was usually called “political economy”. The first great figure in political economy was Adam Smith, and all economists from Smith to J. S. Mill, who wrote about ninety years later, are identified collectively as the “classical” economists. This group of writers had an important common characteristic that contrasts to the “economics” that succeeded it: all the members used a value or price theory based on the labor content in commodities.
