The Gold Standard 

Princes and feudal around the world have long tried to make more with less – and sneak those inflationary policies past the citizenry.

In a review of the Holy Roman Empire in December, the Economist noted that under the loose confederation of the 17^th Century composed of “Kreise, ten of them....regional associations that implemented the laws of the Reichstag, regulated tariffs, collected taxes, mobilised troops and so forth. They also dealt with money. In fact, the Kreise ran currency regimes that look remarkably like th Read more

Murray Rothbard, in Economic Thought Before Adam Smith: Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, referenced the great Greek poet Hesiod as the first economist.

From Hesiod we have many of the great Greek myths, such as that of Pandora.  In Works and Days Hesiod retells the story about "a golden race of mortal men" who "lived like gods without sorrow of heart:"

(ll. 109-120) First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he Read more

The banks, they seem to have thought, could extend their credits to whatever sum might be wanted, without incurring any other expense besides that of a few reams of paper. They complained of the contracted views and dastardly spirit of the directors of those banks....  -- Adam Smith

"Quantitative Easing" is a fancy new euphemism for an old practice: bailouts demanded by merchants of bankers. 

Adam Smith, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, was an early Read more

The work of Sir Isaac Newton, as Master of the British Mint, in creating the classical gold standard is relatively well known. 

The work of an equally great scientist, Copernicus, who gave us the heliocentric model of the solar system, is less so. 

Leszek Zygner of Nicolaus Copernicus University, recently referenced in another entry here, provides substantial information on Copernicus's great contributions to monetary theory.  These are by no means no less relevant today than are his breakthrough contributions Read more