Opportunity Cost - History

History

The term was coined in 1914 by Friedrich von Wieser in his book "Theorie der gesellschaftlichen Wirtschaft".

However, there have been many predecessors: Benjamin Franklin described the concept as "time is money" in his Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One (1748), quoted by Max Weber in his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905):

Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.
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Remember, that money is the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again is seven and threepence, and so on, till it becomes a hundred pounds. The more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, even scores of pounds.

It was also described in 1848 by Frédéric Bastiat in his essay "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen".