Читать книгу A Herstory of Economics - Edith Kuiper - Страница 10

One possible point at which to start this herstory of economics could be the publication of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Smith (1723–90) is generally considered to be the founder, or father, of political economy. To find the women in political economy, however, we need to dig deeper. We need to go back to the first texts in the tradition that brings about political economy in the second half of eighteenth-century England and Scotland. In doing this, we will find ourselves reading texts by Ancient Greek philosophers and medieval writers who focused on the economy of the household, the field of study referred to as “œconomia.”

This chapter will shed light on the early texts by Greek philosophers and later texts by women economic writers on the economy of the household. The second thread in this chapter explores women’s economic writing in the 1700s, engaging with a new morality that emerged with the growth of the middle class. I will describe the cradle of political economy and some major shifts that define the field over the centuries that follow.