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Oct 23rd, 2026 The Forgotten Godmother of Economic Literature In 1776, the field of economics was born with the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. Among the book's earliest readers was a Regency-era novelist named Maria Edgeworth. In her time, Edgeworth was one of the most famous literary figures in England, and she smuggled into her stories economic concepts and debates around rent seeking, the idea of productive labor, and so on. These works were enormously influential and they helped expose a generation to practical applications of Smith's theories. Jeanna Smialek, a veteran Fed reporter and the Brussels bureau chief at The New York Times, thinks Edgeworth's name needs to be placed back in the pantheon of economic history. Today, we discuss Edgeworth's friendly debates with the likes of Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo, how the Irish potato famine reshaped economic thought, and how Edgeworth used the novel form to educate the masses on the value of economics.
document fetched 2026-10-23 15:30 · canonical https://bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-10-23/the-forgotten-godmother-of-economic-literature-video