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Richard Cantillon, (born 17th century, Ballyheige, County Kerry, Ire.—died May 14, 1734, London), Irish economist and financier who wrote one of the earliest treatises on modern economics. Cantillon was an Irishman of Norman origins and Jacobite connections who spent much of his life in France.

Richard Cantillon (1680 – May, 1734) was an important figure in the Physiocrat school of economics, initially a successful financier who made his fortune through speculation. He then turned to theoretical studies of economics, his only work being published posthumously, after he was murdered.

Richard Cantillon (1755) is credited with the discovery of economic theory and was the first to fully consider the critical role of entrepreneurship in the economy. Cantillon described entrepreneurship as pervasive and endowed the entrepreneur with the most pivotal role.

This book analyses the career and writings of the enigmatic Irish‐born economist Richard Cantillon, a banker and entrepreneur. Cantillon's work is examined in the context of the stock market speculation generated by John Law's Mississippi System and the South Sea Bubble of 1720.

Who was Richard Cantillon? Kerry-born 18th-century banker, credited with the origin of the term entrepreneur, can lay claim to being the father of modern economics Expand

Richard Cantillon was an Irish banker and economist who emigrated to Paris, where he profited from the financial scheme known as John Law ’ s Mississippi bubble (1720).

Richard Cantillon is considered by many to be the first economic theorist. His contributions span such diverse topics as methodology, value and price theory, population, money, international trade, business cycles, the circular-flow model of the economy, and the price-specie-flow mechanism.

Richard Cantillon was an Irish-French economist and author of Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général , a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of political economy". Although little information exists on Cantillon's life, it is known that he became a successful banker and merchant at an early age.