Disparaging liberal economics in nineteenth-century Greece: The case of “The economist's duck”

In 1866, a Greek author under the nom-de-plume “Fouram” wrote a short stage comedy entitled“The Economist's Duck.” In this rather crude and artless play, a liberal economist, a follower of Adam Smith and J.-B. Say, is lampooned as attempting to show how his duck can subsist without food. The duck naturally dies and the economist – and his profession – is denounced as a fraud. We have located the play, translated, and published it. We use it to shed light on the public perception of economics in nineteenth-century Greece and relate it to research on the appearance, perception, and criticism of economists and economics. © 2015 Taylor & Francis