Thomas Mun set forth what would become the standard mercantilist line. He pointed out that there was nothing particularly evil about the East India Company trade. The company imported valuable drugs, spices, dyes, and cloth from the Indies, and it re-exported most of these products to other countries.
The Memoranum did not only denounce debasement and call for a high-valued currency, but it also enunciated "Gresham's law" that the cause of a shortage of gold coin in England was the legal undervaluation of gold.
Recorded at FreedomFest, 10 July 2010. Includes an introduction by Douglas E. French.
Compares and contrasts the principles and performance of alternative international monetary systems, including the classical gold standard, the gol
If banks and other credit institutions are multiplied, and if credit operations are facilitated by public security, good administration of law, etc., less money is needed.
Or will we stick to principle, pay whatever price that involves, and leave the world a better place? I submit to you that anyone who has ever truly loved liberty has chosen the second course.
The soundest monetary system and the only one fully compatible with the free market and with the absence of force or fraud from any source is a 100 percent gold standard.
In the real world, of course, the real danger of credit expansion and the boom-bust cycle comes from fiat money and fractional-reserve banking.
From Part I of A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II: “The History of Money and Bank
