The Early Mercantilists: Thomas Mun (1571-1641), Edward Misselden (1608-1634) and Gerard de Malynes (1586-1623)

by Mark Blaug

Overview

The Mercantilist School never presented a common front but is associated with a common outlook: the idea of specie or bullion as the essence of wealth and the notion that a positive balance of trade is an index of national welfare. It is also associated with an emphasis on population growth and low wages, a concern with full employment and the far reaching denial of foreign trade as a source of net gain to the world as a whole; that is, international trade was regarded as a zero-sum gain and particular nations were thought to benefit from international trade only at the expense of others. The underlying idea that a permanent balance of trade surplus should be beneficial to a nation has been a source of discussion right down to the present day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781852784669
Publisher:	Edward Elgar Publishing
Publication date:	03/01/1991
Series:	Pioneers in Economics series , #4
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.62(w) x 9.62(h) x (d)

About the Author

Edited by the late Mark Blaug, former Professor Emeritus, University of London and Professor Emeritus, University of Buckingham, UK

Table of Contents

Contents:
1. E. Johnson (1933), 'Gerard de Malynes and the Theory of the Foreign Exchanges'.
2. H. Heaton (1937), 'Heckscher on Mercantilism'.
3. E.F. Heckscher (1950), 'Multilateralism, Baltic Trade, and the Mercantilists'.
4. C. Wilson (1951), 'Treasure and Trade Balances: Further Evidence'.
5. J.C. Riemersma (1952), 'Usury Restrictions in a Mercantile Economy'.
6. R.W.K. Hinton (1955), 'The Mercantile System in the Time of Thomas Mun'.
7. J.H. Dales (1955), 'The Discoveries and Mercantilism: An Essay in History and Theory'.
8. J.D. Gould (1955), 'The Trade Crisis of the Early 1620s and English Economic Thought'.
9. A.W. Coats (1957), 'In Defence of Heckscher and the Idea of Mercantilism'.
10. L. Herlitz (1964), 'The Concept of Mercantilism'.
11. R.C. Blitz (1967), 'Mercantilist Policies and the Pattern of World Trade, 1500-1750'.
12. L. Muchmore (1969), 'Gerard de Malynes and Mercantile Economics'.
13. L. Muchmore (1970), 'A Note on Thomas Mun's "England's Treasure by Foreign Trade"'.
14. H.O. Schmitt (1979), 'Mercantilism: A Modern Argument'.
15. R.B. Ekelund, Jr and R.D.Tollison (1980), 'Economic Regulation in Mercantile England: Heckscher Revisited'.
16. W.D. Grampp (1981), 'The Controversy over Usury in the Seventeenth Century'.
17. L.S. Moss (1987), 'The Subjective Mercantilism of Bernard Mandeville'.
18. L.H.Officer (1982), 'The Purchasing-Power-Parity Theory of Gerard de Malynes'.
Name Index