This is an account of the theories of growth and distribution of Francois Quesnay, Adam Smith, Robert Malthus, David Ricardo and Karl Marx. This edition has a new introduction setting the work in a broader context. The author shows how each developed the work of his predecessors.

Collects together Anthony Brewer's work on the origins and development of the theory of economic growth from the late eighteenth century and looking at how it came to dominate economic thinking in the nineteenth century