----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- [NOTE: Responding to Mike Lynch's posting.] Actually it was Friedrich Hermann who first drew the suppy-demand diagram with price on the vertical axis in 1841. Rau and Roscher copied him in later editions of their works. Rau first did opportunity cost and also had the idea of marginal utility. Streissler somewhat downgrades von Thunen, or more precisely argues that he gets too much credit. He was very early on certain cases of diminishing returns, but much of what he gets credited with was previously available in German in Rau's work. Von Thunen has received more recognition in English because his work was translated earlier. It has been especially influential in spatial and regional economics where his work was indeed profoundly seminal. Barkley Rosser ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]