Introduction

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to examine the early development of mathematical economics. No attempt has so far been made to examine systematically the literature of mathematical economics before 1838. Occasional attempts¹ have been made, however, to evaluate the work of certain of the authors of that period and the interesting fact about these attempts is that they practically all agree that the authors of that period ‘stand now as more or less isolated figures, who cannot be said to have contributed to a current of thought because there is no discernible flow’ .²