The Place of Learning, Science, Vocational Training, and “Art” in Pre-Smithian Economic Thought

E. A. J. Johnson

The Journal of Economic History, 1964, vol. 24, issue 2, 129-144

Abstract: If one views economic development as the purposeful management of resources through time, an action program must perforce concern itself with utilizing natural resources as fully as possible; with improving the quality and effectiveness of the present and the future supply of human resources; and with changing and perfecting the technological processes whereby natural and human resources are combined. The keys that can open the treasures of economic progress are therefore forged in the schoolroom, the laboratory, the inventor's shop, and the research institute. We take this for granted today because the burgeoning teaching and research apparatus is now much more evident in a physical, financial, and workforce sense than in any previous context. But the difference between our era and earlier experiences with economic development is not absolute; in the past as in the present, whenever economic progress quickened it was a consequence of new insights and a new knowledge, of novelty in thought and action, in short, it was the usufruct of an educational awakening.

Date: 1964
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