Richard Cantillon (1680-1734)was an Irish financier and economist. He can be regarded as the precursor of modern economics, as his analyses are so much modern for his time. Among other things, he introduced the role of entrepreneurship to understand economic progress and describes the spreading of money inflation. His understanding of markets was actually far superior to some of the later economists.
Essay on the nature of trade in General, (1755), available from the LibertyFund Library of Economics & Liberty