The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge On the Balance of Living Beings

Traces the early history of economic knowledge developed by thinkers between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Starting with the sixteenth century, The Lost Forms of Economic Knowledge investigates the origins and prehistory of economic thought before the emergence of political economy as an autonomous discipline in the late eighteenth century. In this book, the celebrated French historian Arnaud Orain argues that these “lost forms” of economic knowledge represent an important alternative to our modern system of numerical abstraction and market manipulation. 

As Orain shows, older approaches to the economy defined it as a relationship between humans and their specific environment. These earlier mindsets sought to advance vernacular knowledge by turning to a variety of figures―naturalists, artisans, farmers, and merchants―to learn how to take advantage of the environment without depleting it. The goal of these inquiries was not to maximize profit but to determine how to allow humans to satisfy basic needs and live in harmony with nature. Now, at a time in which natural resources are fast depleting, Orain argues that we could do worse than consider the alternative approaches to “economics” that lie in our past, and that might still be available in the future.

Alexis Pernsteiner is a French translator and language coach based in Marseille.