Natural law and the origin of political economy : Samuel Pufendorf and the history of economics / Arild Sæther.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Childhood : turbulent times -- University education in Leipzig and Jena -- A creative imprisonment in Copenhagen -- Academic career -- A champion of the Enlightenment -- Method of analysis -- Theory of human behaviour -- Private property and the four-stages theory -- Theories of value, money and trade -- The foundation of states and councils -- Division of state powers and principles of taxation -- A great popularizer -- John Locke : an admirer of Pufendorf -- The first French followers -- Charles Montesquieu : a great philosopher -- Jean-Jaques Rousseau : a political thinker -- The first economic model builders -- Gershom Carmichael brought Pufendorf to Scotland -- Francis Hutcheson a user a Pufendorf -- Pufendorf as a predecessor of Adam Smith -- The bedevilled historians -- Have economists overlooked Pufendorf? -- Pufendorf the grandfather of political economy.