Preface period as PhD-student at the Vrije Universiteit in 1993-1997. in 1994 about my plans for a study of the history of the that a proper study of this concept would take me at least 25 His prediction turned out almost right. The completion of this i process. Partly, the complexity of the subject is too blame, but in 1997 I left academia. Work as a practising economist and concentrated effort on the study of economics. But the subject t and I managed an average production of one chapter per year. iod Hans Visser somehow never lost faith in the successful perhaps he did so, but never showed it. I owe him many thanks support. Mark Blang got officially involved in 2003 as a second and supportive comments helped me to restart the project and