history Early Economics

Pre-classical economic thought

format_quote Quotes

"In countries where money is plentiful, all other things being equal, a greater quantity of money is given for goods and services than where money is scarce. Whence it follows that money itself, like any other commodity, is worth more where it is scarce than where it is abundant."

Azpilcueta, Martín de event 1556

menu_book Comentario Resolutorio de Cambios (Commentary on Exchange)

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"We see by experience that in France, where money is scarcer than in Spain, bread, wine, cloth, and labour are worth much less. And even in Spain, before the discovery of the Indies, goods and labour were much cheaper than they are today, for the reason that there was then much less money."

Azpilcueta, Martín de event 1556

menu_book Comentario Resolutorio de Cambios (Commentary on Exchange)

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"A sum of money today is worth more than the same sum to be received in the future. This is not only the common estimation of men, but is grounded in reason: present goods are available for present needs; future goods must be awaited, and in the meantime their possession is uncertain."

Azpilcueta, Martín de event 1556

menu_book Comentario Resolutorio de Cambios (Commentary on Exchange)

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"A thing is worth as much as it can be sold for without fraud or coercion. The value of goods is not determined by their intrinsic nature, but by the estimation which men commonly put upon them — and this estimation varies with time, place, and circumstance."

Molina, Luis de event 1593

menu_book De Iustitia et Iure (On Justice and Law)

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"The just price of things is not determined by the nature or quality of things in themselves, but by the common estimation of men — that is, by what buyers and sellers commonly agree to give and receive in exchange."

Soto, Domingo de event 1553

menu_book De Iustitia et Iure (On Justice and Law)

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auto_stories Books

An Essay on the Nature of Trade in General

person Cantillon, Richard event 1755

Pioneering work in economic theory written around 1730, covering entrepreneurship, market pricing, monetary economics, and the circular flow, consi...

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person Authors

Cantillon, Richard

Irish-French economist and author of Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général, pioneer in economic theory

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Oresme, Nicole

French philosopher and economist, bishop of Lisieux, early critic of currency debasement and pioneer in economic thought

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Soto, Domingo de

Dominican friar, confessor to Emperor Charles V, and professor at the University of Salamanca. His monumental De Iustitia et Iure (1553) is a found...

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Vitoria, Francisco de

Dominican friar and theologian at the University of Salamanca, widely regarded as the founder of international law and a pioneer of natural rights ...

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