Notable Quote

"What difference does it make whether a man is despoiled of his fortune openly and by force, or secretly, by stealth — whether through a bandit on the road or through a prince who debases the currency by which all things are measured?"

Mariana, Juan de event 1599

From De Rege et Regis Institutione (On the King and the Royal Institution)

Context: On currency debasement as a covert form of property theft. Adapted from De Monetae Mutatione (1609), Mariana's treatise on monetary debasement, which extends themes first developed in De Rege (1599). This formulation directly anticipates Austrian critiques of inflationary finance.