Arild Sæther is Professor Emeritus. He retired from University of Agder, Kristiansand Norway in 2011 and is now affiliated with Agder Academy of Sciences and Letters. Recently he received his Doctor of Philosophy (Dr. Philos) from the Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen. Previously he worked for two and a half years as a Professor of European Economic Integration in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and three years as Director of EuroFaculty Tartu-Riga-Vilnius. Sæther has published books on economic theory and a number of journal articles. For over twenty years his main area of research has been the history of economic thought.

In this unprecedented study, Arild Sæther sheds new light both on Pufendorf's own life and work, as well as his influence on his contemporaries and on later scholars. This book explores Pufendorf's doctrines of political economy and his work on natural law, which was translated into several major European languages. Natural Law and the Origins of Political Economy considers the influence he had on the writings on political economy of John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith, amongst others. If Smith can be called the father of modern economics, this book claims that Pufendorf can be called the grandfather.

Introduction

Part I: Childhood and Education

1. Childhood: Turbulent Times

2. University Education in Leipzig and Jena
3. A Creative Imprisonment in Copenhagen

Part II: A True European

4. Academic Career
5. A Champion of the Enlightenment

Part III: Doctrines of Political Economy

6. Method of Analysis
7. Theory of Human Behaviour
8. Private Property and the Four-Stages Theory
9. Theories of Value, Money and Trade
10. The Foundation of States and Council Decisions
11. Division of State Powers and Principles of Taxation

Part IV: Diffusion of Pufendorf's Economic Ideas

12. A Great Popularizer
13. John Locke an Admirer of Pufendorf

Part V: Early French Philosophers and Pufendorf

14. The First French Followers
15. Charles Montesquieu: A Great Philosopher
16. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: A Political Thinker
17. The First Economic Model Builders

Part VI: Scottish Followers of Pufendorf

18. Gershom Carmichael brought Pufendorf to Scotland
19. Francis Hutcheson a User of Pufendorf
20. Pufendorf as a Predecessor of Adam Smith

Part VII: How could Pufendorf be Overlooked?

21. The Bedevilled Historians
22. Have Economists Overlooked Pufendorf?
23. Pufendorf the Grandfather of Political Economy