Hi, Christina, many years ago I read Joseph J.
Spengler, The Origins of Economic Thought and
Justice (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1980) and found it to be very
useful. Here is the a description from Amazon:
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Complete with extensive bibliography, this
copiously annotated study probes the roots of
contemporary economic thought, focusing on the
interaction between economic and ethical thought
and on conditions responsible for the emergence of orderly economic systems.
Spengler examines the basis of economic thought
among the ancients, then looks specifically at
Mesopotamia, India, China, and Greece. His final
chapter is a historical consideration of
political economy and ethics from Aristotle to the present.
In Mesopotamia, the system of weights and
measures and regulatory codes reinforced
customary practice. In India the economy was
regulated by the state, but China, except for a
few laws regulating consumption, remained
economically free. The Greeks, with a theory of
natural order, contributed the idea of economic
justice; only Greece freed itself from
mythopoetic elements dominant in earlier economic thought.
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Spengler also wrote Indian Economic Thought: A
Preface to Its History (Durham, North Carolina:
Duke University Press, 1971), but I have no
personal experience with it. There is a review in:
Journal of Asian and African Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1-2, 105-106 (1974)
Good luck with your project!
Bruce Larson
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