Ha-Joon Chang addresses his text to those who are familiar with, and perhaps favorably disposed to, a particular economic philosophy known alternately as free-market capitalism or liberalism. Modern economists who subscribe to these ideals are sometimes described as neoliberals. As this term suggests, many of the ideas favored by these economists stem from the earlier, classical economics period in which most economists were pragmatically liberal.

Historians typically identify classical economics with a school of thought that approximately coincided with the Industrial Revolution (roughly 1760-1840). Economists like Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, and John Stuart Mill offered influential commentary on changing economic conditions. Smith is remembered particularly for his reference to an “invisible hand” guiding participants in a free market, in which goods and services are bought and sold with minimal regulation. According to Smith, though those who participate in the market do so out of self-interest, their actions are mutually beneficial to others in the marketplace.

These and other arguments by Smith’s peers proved persuasive, and over time, prior systems of feudalism and mercantilism, which involved significant government ownership and control, ceded to capitalism. Under this system, capital, or the materials used to create goods for sale, is privately owned, allowing for the formation of businesses.