Can anyone take seriously the question posed by the title of this paper? History clearly reveals the following facts. Austrian economics began in 1871 with the pioneer work of the Viennese economist, Carl Menger. Cantillon’s Essai sur la nature du commerce en général was written almost 150 years earlier. It remained virtually undiscovered until reintroduced to economists by W. S. Jevons in 1881. There is definitely no chronological link between Cantillon and Menger, and any intellectual connection is speculative.
Nevertheless, there is a sense in which this question can be taken quite seriously.
