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Smith may be seen as an early example of an economist who views economic theory (and
economic 'laws') as context-dependent and historically relative. One glaring example: the
labor theory of value holds (only) for an 'early and rude' society prior to capital
accumulation and private property in land. Very Marx-ish in flavor if not in content.
 
Someone once asked Hicks, "First you had a loanable funds theory of interest rate
determination; later you held that interest rates were determined by liquidity preference;
now you say that the central bank sets rates exogenously.  Which is it?"  He answered that
all three were more or less correct for the periods that he held them.
 
For a contemporary example, see Edward Nell's THE GENERAL THEORY OF 
TRANSFORMATIONAL GROWTH (CUP, 1998). 
 
Mat Forstater 
Kansas City 
 
 
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