ABSTRACT
Thorstein Veblen's earliest articles on economics dealt with the price of wheat. In one of these he observed that "agriculture is fast assuming the character of an industry". In his own work, Veblen insisted on defining his terms in the way he believed them to be actually employed in the market, and claimed to be drawing on no other facts than were generally known to the common man. In Veblen's day economists were what might be called emotional mercantilists. Veblen's affiliations in the economic field were, as has been noted, chiefly with the historical school. Natural law thinking, according to Veblen, not only gave an 18th-century gloss to 20th-century capitalism, and not only saw productive order where pecuniary chaos reigned, but also reduced man himself to a mere passive creature, tending an economy headed towards some imputed harmonious goal.
