Samuel Johnson's DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,1755 has, inter alia, the following under "ECONOMY"

"Disposition of things; regulation.  All the divine and infinitely wise ways of economy that God could use towards a rational creature, oblige mankind to that course of living which is most agreeable to our nature."

My  reading of this is as follows: economics studies how to maximize welfare.

Comment:  although "oblige mankind" could lead to political economy, the rest of this definition fits economics once one has translated the divine ways into rationality.

I think that I have some early examples of economics and will keep an eye out for them.

Warren Samuels