From Richness to Riches

This chapter traces the earliest examples of economic thought as it related to the environment and natural resources. It starts by discussing Ancient Greek perspectives on the natural world and the economy, including Socratic dialogues on the importance of farming and estate management. Thinkers like Plato and Aristotle were distrustful of economic exchange for the sole purpose of making a profit and believed that the accumulation of wealth for its own sake was unnatural. The discussion then moves forward to examine manorialism and feudalism and how these medieval systems regulated human interactions with the natural world. The chapter then transitions to Mercantilist thinkers, who viewed the world in terms of scarcity and zero-sum competition among nations for natural resources. Finally, it analyzes Physiocracy as a reaction to Mercantilism. It provides a detailed description of how Physiocrats like Quesnay put forward a land theory of value. The chapter concludes by arguing that these early economic ideas presaged later engagements by classical economists on the nature of value, utility, wealth, and exchange.