TESAURO, Gaspare Antonio.

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

De monetarum augmento variatione, et diminutione, tractatus varij. First edition of one of the great Renaissance compilations of works relating to monetary theory.The volume, edited by Tesauro, includes his Tractatus de augmento monetarum and 11 other works by various writers, published from 1497 through to recent publications. Many of the authors were part of a large chorus of voices protesting government manipulation of currency during the 16th century.Essentially they presented a strictly metallist theory of money "which, in fundamentals, did not differ from that of A. Smith" (Schumpeter, p. 99). Tesauro's Tractatus displays "some traces of the distinction between devaluation and depreciation, and may on this account be assigned a special place" (ibid., p. 100). For the most part, the authors were concerned with "the problem of the repayment of debts contracted in a currency that was subsequently debased. This is the problem that really interested the public and is responsible for the unending stream of publications of this kind" (ibid., p. 100).

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