Thomas Mun

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

Born 17 Jun 1571
Died 21 Jul 1641
Activity 1620-1641

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Economist
Political writer

Resources

Mun's Works

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One of the first ‘Mercantilists’ (See our entry on Political Economy), the central premise of Thomas Mun’s economic theory was that gold was a stable measure of wealth, and trade should be centrally regulated by the government to produce an excess of exports over imports in order to gain more gold for the country.

Mun wrote the influential treatise A Discourse of Trade, from England unto the East Indies (1621) which argued against the prevailing opinion that the export of gold bullion (specifically by the East India Trading Company) was responsible for the economic slump. This treatise demonstrated that the re-exportation of goods ‘bought in’ with this bullion generated an income which far exceeded the original outlay. Mun expanded his theories in England’s Treasure by

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186 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Thomas Mun". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5846, accessed 26 November 2024.]