Mercantilism

The British mercantilist writers of the seventeeth and eighteenth centuries were the pioneers of modern economics. Their writings, especially on trade and on money, have had enormous impact both through their ideas and by shaping the language in which subsequent economic debate took place. This set is the most important and authoritative collection of mercantilist writings to date. It demonstrates that the mercantilists were more subtle and balanced economists than Smith and his followers alleged. Far from naively confusing wealth and money, the writers represented here produced sophisticated accounts of the workings of the economic system which show a complex response to the political economy of the time. In all some twenty-six texts are reproduced in their entirety, and the collection is supplemented by a substantial introduction. The texts reproduced range from Thomas Mun's A Discourse of Trade from England Unto the East...(1621) to Jacob Vanderlint's Money answers to all things...(1734). Other writers featured include Edward Misselden, John Cary, Josuah Child, John Locke, Charles Davenant and Matthem Decker.