The Age of Classical Political Economy

This chapter provides an introduction to the first system of economics which is based on the principles of a self-regulation. In 1723, it was impossible to predict that Adam Smith, born that same year in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy, would one day become the “Adam of economics”. Following Smith, a second eminent figure in the field of economics emerged in Britain: David Ricardo, a pioneer of deductive economic theory, whose contributions to the field continue to be of significant relevance in the present day.