Existence of Economic Thought Prior to Adam Smith

             Although Adam Smith is often regarded as the father of economics, there were many developments in economics before Adam Smith.  In fact, some argue that Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations does not include a single original idea and is merely a collection of economic thought that was already developed (Backhouse 130).  Although often ignored, the economic thought before Adam Smith was important and much of the thought is still relevant today.  In the ancient world, for example, Plato advanced the idea of efficiency and advocated specialization as a means to being efficient (18).  In business, and markets in general, there is always the concern with being efficient and the debate on whether or not workers should specialize still takes place.  In the middle ages, Ibn Kaldun put forth the idea of the process of economic development, describing how a nation transitions from peak points to trough points (38).  This is indicative of the business cycle where the economy is constantly going through high points and low points.  In seventeenth-century England, William Petty compiled a list of national accounts and was able to make estimates of the figures on a national level (69).  Compiling national accounts lists and estimates is, of course, still used today.  While these are only a few examples, there are many other areas of important economic theories developed before the time of Adam Smith.  Yet Adam Smith still receives that majority of the credit for the beginnings of economics.  Why these earlier writers are often ignored, I am not sure.  It could be because the ideas were developed here and there and not on a larger scale.  Adam Smith was able to pull all of these ideas together into a collection, and that could be a reason for his praise.  Adam Smith also wrote his Wealth of Nations at the same time as the Industrial Revolution was underway.  As the Industrial Revolution is regarded as the reason for large economic growth in various nations, Adam Smith’s writings seem to coincide with this progress and advancement.  It could also be due to the fact that, as an individualistic society motivated by profit, some of the early economists who wrote about the harmful effects of self-interest and the accumulation of too much wealth do not appear to accurately represent some current views of economics.  Although Adam Smith was concerned with having a moral society, he also advocated self-interest and explained how the two could be related.