The history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the subject that became political economy and economics from the ancient world to the present day in the 21st century this field encompasses many disparate schools of economic thoughtancient greek writers such as the philosopher aristotle examined ideas about the art of wealth acquisition and questioned whether . The earliest discussions of economics date back to ancient times such as chanakyas c350 c275 bce arthashastra the earliest known treatise on economic principles and guidelines for a progressive economy or xenophons c 430 353 bce oeconomicus and continue through the religious based ideas of jewish thought the scholastics and medieval islamic scholars. The father of economics economic thought goes as far back as the ancient greeks and is known to have been an important topic in the ancient middle east today scottish thinker adam smith is . Difficulties in the study of history of economic thought however it must be remembered that history of economic thought is selective and interpretative in nature in other words the authors select those topics in which they are interested they also explain the facts in their own manner