THE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF ECONOMIC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

THE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF ECONOMIC - Essay Example It emphasized that foreign goods should only be imported if there is an indispensable need and that too for exchange of domestic products instead of gold and silver. The mercantilist thought opposed free trade with other countries and empires believing that it was fruitless and beneficial to one side only. This paper aims to investigate the important contributions made by the critics of mercantilism which led to the development of classical economic thought (The economist, ). The mercantilist policies, where successful, produced an oversupply of wealth eventually leading to severe inflation. Sooner, protests against government regulations were voiced due to fiscal difficulties. In the late 17th and 18th centuries in France, economists developed physiocracy (government of nature) which advocated agricultural practices, land development and stressed on higher pricing of agricultural commodities. Pierre le Pesant de Boisguilbert opposed the prohibition of export of grain which was ruining the neglected agriculture sector. Fracois Quesnay in his work ‘Tableau Economique’ also opposed trade and industry as sources of wealth arguing that real economy mover was productivity in agricultural and diffusion of its surpluses in the system. Marshal Vauban asserted that working class were the main pillars of social welfare and should be protected. Among other notable contributors were Richard Cantillon, Marquis d’Argenson and Vincent de Gournay who advocated free trade and is believed to have originated the physiocratic slogan ‘laissez faire, laissez passer’ meaning ‘let it be, let it pass’. John Law in his ‘credit theory of money’ proposed that since silver and gold fluctuate, land would be the most stable measure of value. He proposed the use of mortgage-notes for mobilization and paper money for domestic circulation upon security of land. Similarly in Britain, William Petty, John Locke, Dudely North, David Hume and others strongly criticized