Perspectives on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 5-6.

• Author: Fontaine, Philippe

These two volumes contain a selection of the papers presented at the History of Economics Society meetings hosted by the University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia in June 1989. The great variety of themes touched upon in the contributions, attests the vitality of the history of economic thought. On the other hand, the lack of cohesiveness of both volumes illustrates the persistent doubts of the discipline about its subject matter.

Part I of Volume 5 provides a good idea as to how economists in general can learn from the past. Louis Baeck suggests that the "Mediterranean tradition in economics," starting with Aristotle's Ethica Nichoniachea, may well cast light on the contemporary debates about the relationship between economics and ethics. Besides, he makes the point that an important root of this tradition, namely, the economic thought of classical Islam, has been neglected. To the extent that "Islam's contribution to economic thought is more than simply a link in the transmission of classical culture to Europe" [p. 4], a great deal of original ideas remains in obscurity. The limitations of the history of economics are not simply spatial; they also apply to time. In his "Information and Risk in the Medieval Doctrine of Usury during the Thirteenth Century," Andre Lapidus clearly demonstrates how contemporary concepts can participate in reformulating old problems, although "it is not [his] intention to discover a first draft of modern economic theory in these thirteenth century writings" [p. 23]. Similarly, Todd Lowry shows that economics has a past which surreptitiously determines the nature of today's theory. For example, he argues that emphasis upon entrepreneurship is the outcome of the individual decision-making, stemming from "interest in and respect for leadership positions in antiquity" [p. 39]. Nowhere in the volume is the problem of the place of "history" in the history of economics as well addressed as in these three contributions.

Part Two deals with "variations on classical themes." The papers presented here try to correct, indeed enrich, traditional interpretations. In this regard, Antoin Murphy claims that the "antipathy towards Law during the French Revolution has a modem parallel in the distrust and neglect modern economists have also shown towards him" [p. 49]. As a result, commentators have put aside some modernistic aspects of Law's conception of money, more particularly, his insights into the notion of the demand for...