The Ethics of Money Production
Jörg Guido HülsmannIt has been a long-standing project of mine to give a concise exposition of monetary theory, with special emphasis on the ethical and institutional aspects of money production. Money and banking have been covered more than any other subject in economics. Still there is reason to hope that the following pages will not be superfluous, for they combine three elements that have not previously been integrated into a single work.
First, this book applies the tradition of philosophical realism to the analysis of money and banking. The great pioneer of this approach was the fourteenth century mathematician, physicist, economist, and bishop, Nicholas Oresme, who wrote the first treatise ever on inflation and, in fact, the very first treatise on an economic problem. Oresme exclusively dealt with the debasement of coins, a form of inflation that is unimportant in our age. But the principles he brought to bear on his subject are still up to date and have by and large remained unsurpassed. In modern times, Oresme’s work has found its vindication in the writings of the Austrian School.
The Austrian theory of banking and fiat money is the second element [...].