Fronsperger and Laffemas : sixteenth-century precursors of modern economic ideas

This volume introduces two unique and hitherto largely unknown contributions to the making of modern economic knowledge, and makes them available internationally for the first time in full English translation. Written in 1597 Barthelemy de Laffemas' General regulation for the establishment of manufacturers (originally in French: Reiglement général pour dresser les manufactures) is one of the earliest voices in the history of political economy emphasising the necessity of manufacturing and large-scale industry as the source of the wealth of nations. Located somewhat at the cross-roads between medieval Scholasticism and early mercantilism presents a basic version of the infant industry argument and European standard model of economic development which made it into later doctrines of thought including Enlightenment thinkers such as Colbert, Sir James Steuart or Friedrich List and nineteenth and twentieth century neomercantilism.Leonhard Fronsperger's On the praise of self-interest (German original: Von dem Lob deß Eigen Nutzen, 1564) is the first documented instance of the 'Mandeville paradox', a theorem in modern economics usually associated with much later writings including Bernard de Mandeville's Fable of the Bees (1705/14), or Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and Wealth of Nations (1776). Vested in Renaissance Humanism southern German military surgeon and polymath Fronsperger argues - without moving into the abstractions of neoliberalism - that possessive individualism and self-interest are key forces moving the human economy forward, contributing to virtuous cycles of enrichment and economic development.