Barbon, Nicholas

Born 1640; died 1698. English bourgeois economist. Precursor of the advocates of the so-called state theory of currency.

In his main work, A Discourse of Trade, Barbon emerges as an opponent of the theory and practice of mercantilism. He criticized the state regulation of economic life and argued for freedom of trade. He believed that the value of goods is determined by their utility. In A Discourse Concerning Coining the New Money Lighter, Barbon defends the idea of nominalism. Barbon was the first to define interest as the price of capital. He expressed the interests of the landowners and was an advocate of legislative limitations on interest. K. Marx criticized Barbon’s views.