Routledge Handbook of Macroeconomic Methodology

15 Classical political economy

Nuno Ornelas Martins

DOI: 10.4324/9781315745992-19

Historical origins and development

Classical Political Economy is a term coined by Karl Marx (1999 [1867]) in order to designate an economic tradition ranging from William Petty to David Ricardo. Marx distinguished the ‘classical’ economists from the ‘vulgar’ economists. The vulgar economists were, according to Marx, a group of economists who appeared essentially after Ricardo and focused on superficial phenomena such as supply and demand, rather than on a scientific study of the underlying conditions of socio-economic reproduction as the classical authors had done. Adam Smith is seen as the key figure in classical political economy. However, Marx argues that ...