Known by other scientists as the "Dismal Science," this field makes a serious effort to study and describe:

The production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of wealth and the various related issues (problems) of labor, finance, taxation, currencies, the political arena as it relates to the above areas of goods and services.

Although interest in economic theories dates to the origins of commerce itself, economics as a modern study independent of moral or political philosophy is attributed to the Scottish writer Adam Smith (1723-1790). The ideas put forth in his seminal work, Wealth of Nations, form the basis of "classical" economic theory and free-market capitalism.