B11 - History of Economic Thought: Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)Return

H. H. Gossen was a Prussian court clerk, autodidact. He for the first time detected the marginal utility principles (three Gossen principles). At the time of his life he was unacknowledged, although he is the most important predecessor of neoclasic economic thought and marginalistict revolution.

R. Cantillon was an irish merchant and banker whose birth, youth, financila activities and even death are secret. We know that he operated in France. Nowadays there has preserved the only his book, but this is often considered to be the first trully systematic economic treatise. Cantillon contributed to many economic topics and in many of them he was the first author.