2. Leland Yeager (1981)
“It is probably more true of economics than of the
natural sciences that earlier discoveries are in danger of
being forgotten; maintaining a cumulative growth of
knowledge is more difficult…”
3.
4. Fan Li
• Born in 517 BC
• Also known by the name Tao Zhu Gong which he took after victory
over the state of Wu.
• An ancient Chinese advisor in the state of Yue in the Spring and
Autumn period.
• A businessman in his later years and became legendary for his
success.
5. “One who
understood money
would be willing to
abandon it if it
became a burden. It
is only a means to
an end and should
not be taken too
seriously.”
6. Golden Rules of Business Success
• Ability to know people's character. You must perceive evidence of
characteristics from experience.
• Ability to handle people. Never prejudge a prospect.
• Ability to stay focused on the business. Have a definite focus in life
and business and avoid jumping around.
• Ability to be organized. A disorganized presentation is unappealing.
• Ability to be adaptable. Make sure you are organized enough to
respond quickly.
• Ability to control credit. Do not allow nonpayment. Make sure you
collect what is owed.
7. • Ability to use and deploy people. Use employees in ways which bring out
their potential(s).
• Ability to articulate and market. You must be able to educate customers on
the value of goods.
• Ability to excel in purchasing. Use your best judgement in acquiring stock.
• Ability to analyze market opportunities and threats. Know what is selling
according to areas and trends.
• Ability to lead by example. Have definite rules and standards. Make sure
they are followed to ensure good relations.
• Ability to have business foresight. Know market trends and cycles.
8. The Twelve Golden Safeguards
• Don't be stingy. Never confuse efficiency with inhumanity.
• Don't be wishy-washy. Be confident in pursuing opportunities. Time is of
the essence.
• Don't be ostentatious. Do not overspend in order to make an impression.
• Don't be dishonest. Truth is the only basis for business. Without it
someone will get hurt.
• Don't be slow in debt collection. Without collections, liquidity is affected.
• Don't slash prices arbitrarily. This will only trigger a price war in which
everyone will lose.
9. • Don't give in to herd instinct. Make sure the opportunities are real and not
part of a craze.
• Don't work against the business cycle. When things fall in price, they will
then rise and vice versa.
• Don't be a stick-in-the-mud. Keep up with things and make progress.
Examine new things objectively.
• Don't overbuy on credit. Credit is not license to spend wildly.
• Don't under-save (keep reserve funds strong). When business is slow, one
with money can expand while others close.
• Don't blindly endorse a product. Make sure your vendors are still following
standard operating procedure.
10.
11. Chanakya (Cāṇakya)
• Born in a Brahmin family 350 – 275 BCE
• An Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor.
• Traditionally identified as Kauṭilya or Vishnu Gupta, who authored the
ancient Indian political treatise, the Arthashastra (Economics)
13. • Composed, expanded and redacted between 2nd century BCE and
3rd century CE.
• Was influential until the 12th century, when it disappeared.
• Rediscovered in 1904 by R. Shamasastry, who published it in 1909;
the first English translation was published in 1915.
• Title "Arthashastra" is often translated to "the science of politics"
14. • Includes books on the nature of government, law, civil and criminal court
systems, ethics, economics, markets and trade, the methods for screening
ministers, diplomacy, theories on war, nature of peace, and the duties and
obligations of a king.
• Includes ancient economic and cultural details on agriculture, mineralogy,
mining and metals, animal husbandry, medicine, forests and wildlife.
• Explores issues of social welfare, the collective ethics that hold a society
together, advising the king that in times and in areas devastated by famine,
epidemic and such acts of nature, or by war, he should initiate public
projects such as building irrigation projects, building forts around major
strategic holdings and towns, and exempt taxes on those affected
15. Kautilya, Chanakya Sutra 1-6
सुखस्य मूलं धममः | धममस्य मूलं अर्मः | अर्मस्य मूलं राज्यं | राज्यस्य मूलं इन्द्रिय
जयः | इन्द्रियाजयस्य मूलं विनयः | विनयस्य मूलं िृद्धोपसेिः ||
The root of happiness is Dharma (ethics, righteousness), the root
of Dharma is Artha (economy, polity), the root of Artha is right
governance, the root of right governance is victorious inner-restraint,
the root of victorious inner-restraint is humility, the root of humility is
wisdom.
16. Hellenistic Period (323-31 BC)
• 5000 years ago, the Mediterranean region became the cradle of a
number of civilizations.
• Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria and Persia figure in the history books as
creative incubators of cultural heritage.
• Their civilizations had relatively developed economy with surplus
production efficiently mobilized and redistributed for the
administrative and religious establishment.
• The Greek rhetoricians and scholars were also the first to write
extensively on problems of practical philosophy like ethics, politics
and economics.
17. • ON WEALTH (peri ploutou)
• ON HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS (peri oikonomias)
• Greek economic thought formed an integral but subordinated part of
the two major disciplines: ETHICS and POLITICS.
18. Xenophon
(Xenophōn; c. 430 – 354 BC),
son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of
Athens, also known as Xenophon of
Athens, was a Greek historian,
soldier, mercenary, and student of
Socrates.
19. Xenophon: Oeconomicus
• Uses as an example of good organization, management, distribution,
and control that was exercised by the queen-bee.
• Sets forth the Socratic idea that if you can find the man with a ruling
soul, the archic man, you had better put him in control and trust his
wisdom rather than the counsels of many.
20. Oikonomia
• “Oikos” and “nemein” (from root word nem and verb nemein – “to
deal out; to dispense”, cf. Homer, Odyssey)
• Household Management (“oikos” – house)
• Attributed to Socrates
• Antisthenes (ca. 450-370): preoccupied with the problem of
managing house property.
• Xenophon: “Oeconomicus”
21. Works and Days, 107-108; 231-237)
“The problem,” Hesiod teaches his brother, “is to be solved not by
means that nowadays would be labeled as ‘political’ by force and fraud,
bribery, and willful appropriation, but by incessant work in fair
competition, by moderation, honesty and knowledge of how and when
to do the things required in the course of seasons… how to adjust
wants to the resources available….”
22. Democritus
“Those who wall in their gardens are
unwise , because a flimsy wall will not
survive the wind and rain, while a stone
will cost more to build than the wall
itself is worth” (Columella, De re rustica
XI 3, 2).
23. Plato
• 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC)
• Came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families
in Athens (Ariston & Perictione)
• Founder of The Academy in Athens (the first institution of higher
learning in the Western world)
24. Hierarchy of Values
1. Knowledge
2. Honor
3. Money or Business
4. Pleasure
5. Satisfaction of some single overpowering sensuous appetite.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31. Platonism
• A term used by scholars to refer to the intellectual consequences of
denying, as Plato's Socrates often does, the reality of the material
world.
• In several dialogues, most notably the Republic, Socrates inverts the
common man's intuition about what is knowable and what is real.
32.
33. The Republic
• Ca. 380–360 BCE
• Described an ideal city-state run by philosopher-kings
• Contained references to specialization of labor and production. Plato
was the first to advocate the credit theory of money, that is, money as
a unit of account for debt.
34.
35.
36. Aristotle
• 384–322 BC
• A Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on
the northern periphery of Classical Greece.
• Son of Nicomachus who died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter
Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian.
• Joined Plato's Academy in Athens at age 18 and remained there until the
age of 37 (c. 347 BC)
• Writings cover many subjects: physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic,
ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and
government; and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western
philosophy.
37. Politics
• Ca. 350 BCE
• Analyzed different forms of the state: monarchy, aristocracy,
constitutional government, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy
(as a critique of Plato's model of a philosopher-kings)
• Of particular interest for economists is Plato's blueprint of a
society based on common ownership of resources. Aristotle
viewed this model as an oligarchical anathema. Though
Aristotle did certainly advocate that many things be held in
common, he argued that not everything could be, simply
because of the "wickedness of human nature".
38. "It is clearly better that property should be private", wrote
Aristotle, "but the use of it common; and the special business of
the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition."
39. Politics, Book 1
• The general nature of households and market exchanges
• A certain "art of acquisition" or "wealth-getting“:
• Acquisition of wealth (chrematistike) as being either the same as, or a
principle of oikonomia (household management – oikonomos; with oikos as
house and nomosin fact translated as custom or law)
• Many people are obsessed with accumulation, and "wealth-getting" for
one's household is "necessary and honorable“; while exchange on the retail
trade for simple accumulation is "justly censured, for it is dishonorable"
• Highly disapproved of usury and cast scorn on making money through
a monopoly.
40. Aristotle discarded Plato's credit theory of money
for Metallism, the theory that money derives its value from the
purchasing power of the commodity upon which it is based, and
is only an "instrument", its sole purpose being a medium of
exchange, which means on its own "it is worthless... not useful as
a means to any of the necessities of life".
41. THE MIDDLE AGES (500-1500AD)
• 4th to 10th centuries (Early Middle Ages or Dark Ages): collapse of the
Roman Empire in the west until the rise of the new and prosperous
society of the High Middle Ages
• 4th and 5th century Germanic invasion
• 8th and 9th century Vikings, Magyar and Saracen invasions
• A time of insecurity and warfare during which the roots of a new
society were being laid, when two different cultures met and evolved
into something totally new.
42. Feudalism
• A social, political, and economic system
• The Christian Church was growing in importance and at the same
time was itself becoming a feudal society.
• The economic portion of feudalism was centered around the lord's
estates or manor, and a lord's manor would include peasant villages, a
church, farm land, a mill, and the lord's castle or manor house.)
• Manors were self sufficient; all economic activity occurred on the
manor. This meant that little to no trade occurred during this time
period. Most of the peasants during the Middle Ages were serfs, who
were generally farmers who were tied to the land.
43. St. Thomas Aquinas
• (1225 – 7 March 1274)
• Doctor of the Church ("Doctor Angelicus" and "Doctor Communis“)
• Italian, Dominican friar
• Immensely influential philosopher, theologian and jurist.
44. Summa Theologica
• Concept of a just price as necessary for the reproduction of the social
order.
• Immoral for sellers to raise their prices simply because buyers had a
pressing need for a product.
45. • (1265–1308)
• Originally from Duns Scotland
• Taught in Oxford, Cologne, and Paris.
• Sententiae (1295), he thought it possible to be more precise than Aquinas
in calculating a just price,, although he recognized that the latter might be
inflated by exaggeration because buyer and seller usually have different
ideas of a just price. If people did not benefit from a transaction, in Scotus'
view, they would not trade. Scotus said merchants perform a necessary and
useful social role by transporting goods and making them available to the
public.
46. Calculation of just price
• Emphasized the costs of labor and
expenses (although buyers and sellers
disagree on what is “just”).
• If people did not benefit from a
transaction, they would not trade.
• Merchants perform a necessary and useful
social role by transporting goods and
making them available to the public.
