page_title: History of economic thought
section_title: Jean Bodin
hierarchical_section_title: History of economic thought / Mercantilism and international trade (16th to 18th century) / Jean Bodin
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Jean Bodin, portrait gravé destiné à illustrer les Illustres d'Anjou de Claude Ménard (avant 1620)
context_page_description: The history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the subject that became political economy and economics, from the ancient world to the present day in the 21st Century. This field encompasses many disparate schools of economic thought. Ancient Greek writers such as the philosopher Aristotle examined ideas about the art of wealth acquisition, and questioned whether property is best left in private or public hands. In the Middle Ages, scholasticists such as Thomas Aquinas argued that it was a moral obligation of businesses to sell goods at a just price.
  In the Western world, economics was not a separate discipline, but part of philosophy until the 18th–19th century Industrial Revolution and the 19th century Great Divergence, which accelerated economic growth.
context_section_description: In 1568 Jean Bodin (1530–1596) of France published Reply to Malestroit, containing the first known analysis of inflation, which he claimed was caused by importation of gold and silver from South America, backing the quantity theory of money.
caption: Jean Bodin (1530–1596)
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