But it is interesting as containing a statement of the fundamental principles of the mercantile system more than one hundredyears before the publication of Mun's book,and forty-six before that of Bodin's Six livres de la République .The Albertinetracts,according to Roscher,exhibit such sound views of the conditions and evidences of national wealth,of the nature ofmoney and trade,And of the rights and duties of Governments in relation to economic action,that he regards the unknownauthor as entitled to a place beside Raleigh and the other English "colonial-theorists"of the end of the sixteenth andbeginning of the seventeenth century.
In connection with the same subject of money we meet the great name of Copernicus.His treatise De monetae cudendaeratione ,1526(first printed in 1816),was written by order of King Sigismund I,and is an exposition of the principles onwhich it was proposed to reform the currency of the Prussian provinces of Poland.It advocates unity of the monetarysystem throughout the entire state,with strict integrity in the quality of the coin,and the charge of a seigniorage sufficient tocover the expenses of mintage.
Antonio Serra is regarded by some as the creator of modern political economy.He was a native of Cosenza in Calabria.His Breve Trattato delle cause che possono fare abbondare li regni d'oro e d'argento dove non sono miniere ,1613,waswritten during his imprisonment,which is believed to have been due to his having taken part in the conspiracy of Campanellafor the liberation of Naples from the Spanish yoke and the establishment of a republican Government.This work,longoverlooked,was brought into notice in the following century by Galiani and others.Its title alone would sufficiently indicatethat the author had adopted the principles of the mercantile system,and in fact in this treatise the essential doctrines of thatsystem are expounded in a tolerably formal and consecutive manner.He strongly insists on the superiority of manufacturesover agriculture as a source of national wealth,and uses in support of this view the prosperity of Genoa,Florence,andVenice,as contrasted with the depressed condition of Naples.With larger insight than many of the mercantilists exhibit,heinsists on the importance,towards the acquisition of wealth,not alone of favourable external conditions,but of energeticcharacter and industrious habits in a population,as well as of a stable government and a good administration of the laws.
The first systematic treatise on our science which proceeded from a French author was the Traitéde l'Économie Politique ,published by Montchrétien de Watteville (or Vasteville)(9)in 1615.The use of the title,says Roscher,now for the first timegiven to the science,was in itself an important service,since even Bacon understood by "Economia"only the theory ofdomestic management.The general tendencies and aims of the period are seen in the fact that this treatise,notwithstandingthe comprehensive name it bears,does not deal with agriculture at all,but only with the mechanical arts,navigation,commerce,and public finance.The author is filled with the then dominant enthusiasm for foreign trade and colonies.Headvocates the control by princes of the industry of their subjects,and condemns the too great freedom,which,in his opinionto their own detriment,the Governments of Spain,Portugal,and Holland had given to trade.His book may be regarded as aformal exposition of the principles of the mercantile system for the use of Frenchmen.
