Classical Economists :: essays research papers

As a coherent frugal theory, classical economic science start with smith, continues with the BritishEconomists doubting Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo. Although differences of opinion were numerous among the classical economists in the time span in the midst of metalworkers riches of Nations (1776) and Ricardos precepts of Political Economy and revenue (1817), they all mainly agreed on major principles. All believed in private property, freehanded markets, and, in Smiths words, The individual rocking horse of private gain to increase the humanity good. They shared Smiths strong suspicion of government and his enthusiastic confidence in the forcefulness of self-interest represented by his famous undetectable hand, which reconciled public benefit with personal quest of private gain. From Ricardo, classicists derived the notion of diminishing returns, which held that as more labor and capital were applied to land yields after a certain and not very advanced stage i n the take place of agriculture steadily diminished. The central thesis of The Wealth of Nations is that capital is silk hat employed for the production and distribution of wealth under conditions of governmental noninterference, or laissez-faire, and free trade. In Smiths popular opinion, the production and exchange of goods nookie be stimulated, and a consequent rise in the general mensuration of living attained, only through the efficient operations of private industrial and commercial entrepreneurs acting with a minimum of regulation and control by the governments. To explain this concept of government maintaining laissez-faire attitude toward the commercial endeavors, Smith proclaimed the principle of the invisible hand Every individual in pursuing his or her own good is led, as if by an invisible hand, to achieve the best good for all. Therefore any interference with free competition by government is almost certain to be injurious.Although this view has undergone consider able modification by economists in the light of historical developments since Smiths time, many sections of The Wealth of Nations notably those relating to the sources of income and the nature of capital, have move to form the basis of theoretical study of the field of political economy. The Wealth of Nations has also served as a guide to the formulation of governmental economic policies.Malthus, on the other hand, in his book An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) imparted a tone of dreariness. Malthuss main contribution to economics was his theory that a population tends to increase faster than the supply of aliment available for its needs.