Richard Cantillon

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Book cover, 1755

Richard Cantillon (* 1680 in Ballyheigue , Kerry , Ireland , † 1734 in London ) was one of the first economists to work out the idea of ​​a money cycle and in doing so came across the importance of the velocity of money . According to Joseph Schumpeter, his conception of the nature of the credit business, which is based on increasing the speed of circulation of money, was the basis of the official theory of banking up to the First World War.

Life

Cantillon worked as a banker in Paris from 1714 to 1720 and was presumably the victim of a robbery in London in 1734. The house was then set on fire and all the manuscripts in it were burned. Only the Essai sur la nature du commerce en général has been preserved, in which he describes the Cantillon effect named after him . It was written between 1730 and 1734, but was not published posthumously until 1755. However, the work exerted influence as a manuscript even before it was printed, for example on Mirabeau ( L'Ami des Hommes , 1757) or Quesnay ( Grains , 1757). Adam Smith probably got to know it during his meeting with the Physiocrats in France between 1764 and October 1766; he mentioned it in his " Wealth of Nations ".

Cantillon himself was influenced by both John Locke and William Petty .

Only Anne Robert Jacques Turgot had received Cantillon to a greater extent. His work was forgotten until it was rediscovered by William Stanley Jevons in 1881 . Henry Higgs published a complete English edition in 1931 which, in addition to the French version, also contains Richard Cantillon and the Nationality of Political Economy penned by Jevons and a biography.

Schumpeter sees Cantillon and Turgot in a theoretical-historical continuity that leads via Jean-Baptiste Say to Léon Walras .

Representatives of the Austrian school consider Cantillon to be one of their early precursors. So did Friedrich August von Hayek also in 1931 published a German translation. Certain arguments from the socialism debate of the time about the functioning of the market can already be found in the beginning of Cantillon, where he discusses a regime change between central planning and the market.

Works

literature

  • FA Hayek: Richard Cantillon. Introduction to the German translation by Richard Cantillon: Treatise on the nature of commerce in general . Jena 1931. S. V-LXVI.
  • Heino Klingen: Political Economy of the Pre-Classical Period. The contributions of Pettys, Cantillons and Quesnays to the emergence of classical political economy . Metropolis Marburg 1992. ISBN 3-926570-59-8 . Pp. 67-128.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph A. Schumpeter, (Elizabeth B. Schumpeter, ed.): History of economic analysis . First part of the volume. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen 1965. p. 403 ff.
  2. ↑ Richard Cantillon, [1755] 1931. Essai sur la nature du commerce en général , ed. And with an English translation by Henry Higgs for the Royal Economic Society. London: Macmillan & Co.
  3. ↑ Joseph A. Schumpeter, (Elizabeth B. Schumpeter, ed.): History of economic analysis . First part of the volume. Vandenhoeck Ruprecht Göttingen 1965. p. 606.
  4. ↑ Mark Thornton: The Origin of Economic Theory: A Portrait of Richard Cantillon (1680-1734). Ludwig von Mises Institute.
  5. ↑ Heino Klingen: Political Economy of the Pre-Classical Period. The contributions of Pettys, Cantillons and Quesnays to the emergence of classical political economy . Metropolis Marburg 1992. ISBN 3-926570-59-8 . P. 96ff
personal data
SURNAME Cantillon, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish banker
DATE OF BIRTH 1680
PLACE OF BIRTH Ballyheigue , Kerry , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH 1734
Place of death London