ty of language
which is a striking proof of the superior genius of its author.'[3]
According to Brants, 'the treatise of Oresme is one of the first to
be devoted _ex professo_ to an economic subject, and it expresses many
ideas which are very just, more just than those which held the field
for a long period after him, under the name of mercantilism, and more
just than those which allowed of the reduction of money as if it were
nothing more than a counter of exchange.'[4] 'Oresme's treatise on
money,' says Macleod, 'may be justly said to stand at the head of
modern economic literature. This treatise laid the foundations of
monetary science, which are now accepted by all sound economists.'[5]
'Oresme's completely secular and naturalistic method of treating one
of the most important problems of political economy,' says Espinas,
'is a signal of the approaching end of the Middle Ages and the dawn of
the Renaissance.'[6] Dr. Cunningham adds his tribute of praise: 'The
conceptions of national wealth and national power were ruling ideas in
economic matters for several centuries, and Oresme appears to be the
earliest of the economic writers by whom they were explicitly adopted
as the very basis of his argument.... A large number of points
of economic doctrine in regard to coinage are discussed with much
judgment and clearness.'[7] Endemann alone is[8] inclined to quarrel
with the pre-eminence of Oresme; but on this question, he is in a
minority of one.[9]

[Footnote 1: _Op. cit._, p. 186.]

[Footnote 2: _Quaest. super Lib. Eth._, v. 17; _Quaest. super Lib.
Pol._, i. 11.]

[Footnote 3: Quoted in Wolowski, _op. cit._, and see Roscher,
_Geschichte_, p. 25.]

[Footnote 4: _Op. cit._, p. 190.]

[Footnote 5: _History of Economics_, p. 37.]

[Footnote 6: _Op. cit._, p. 110.]

[Footnote 7: _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, vol. i. p.
359.]

[Footnote 8: _Grundsaetze_, p. 75.]

[Footnote 9: See an interesting note in Brants, _op. cit._, p. 187.]

The principal question which Oresme sets out to answer, according to
the first chapter of this treatise, is whether the sovereign has the
right to alter the value of the money in circulation at his pleasure,
and for his own benefit. He begins the discussion by going over the
same ground as Aristotle in demonstrating the origin and utility of
money, and then proceeds to discuss the most suitable materials
which can be made to serve as money. He decides in favour of gold and