The history of economic thought is as old as the human thought itself.
It is only one aspect of the broad current of men’s thinking and is related to
man’s economic activities since very early time. Some writers namely Gide and
Rist do not lay emphasis on the study of ancient , and medieval economic
thought. They outright begin with physiocrats. This has created disunity in
economic thought. The history of economic thought has three well-defined
periods: a) ancient, b) medieval, and c) modern. From the point of view of
maintaining a positive continuity in the history of economic thought, the
inclusion of the first two periods is highly essential. It is though the ideas
of Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Kautilya, Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Mannus and
Oresme that ethics and jurisprudence came to occupy a prominent place in this
subject.The economic practices of a primitive type were prevalent before any
theories were formulated and as time passed on , some of those practices
underwent modifications and the opinion of writers changed in accordance with
changed circumstances. One glaring example is that of interest. In ancient and
early medieval times the realization of interest was considered
undesirable and usury was badly
condemned. But later on, when trade and commerce develop and acquired an
important place in economy, the charging of
interest was justified by economist and consequently several theories of
interest were formulate. It must be that
meditated the history of economic thought is selective and interpretative in
nature , i.e, authors select those topic in which they feel greatly interested
and leave out others. They also possess their own manner of interpreting facts.
And if authors live out certain important facts and lay undue emphasis on
others, their judgments are biased and assumptions misleading’s. A history of
economic doctrines by Gide and rist , for example leaves out discussion on
ancient economic ideas , medieval economic thought and the contribution made by
mercantilists. That history does not, than, remain fully representative of all
the periods and phases of economic thought. A complete history should deal with
modern economic thought also, I,e, the contribution made by Alfred Marshall,
A,C, Pigou, J,M, Keynes and the American institutional economists. Alexander
Grqy’s the development of economic doctrine has left this modern aspect of
economic thought.
There is a strong relationship between the history of economic thought
and economic history. Environments motivate thinking economic ideas, thus
depend upon enviroments. Ideas when they get firmly established, become part of
the traditions on which economic policies are based. Which in turn influence
environmental economy. Medieval thinkers and writers wrote on those topics only
which were the problems of the day. Modern economists find solutions to the
present day problems-wage determination, rate of interest , monopoly revenue ,
price structure, unemployment, population planning, food shortage, control over
note-issue, large-scale production, rationalization, development of
international trade , etc. A new development in the Indian economy is witnessed
by the application of the Gandhian ideology of decentralization and non
violence which were necessitated by the nationalist movement in India.
