----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- > The most interesting aspect of Al-Maqrizi's work is that, in his critique of > the monetary policy of the Mamluk government in Egypt, he directly linked > high inflationary periods with the debasement of currency. Al-Maqrizi > delineated something quite similar to the Quantity Theory of Money, A couple of quick points. I would be careful about the use of the term "inflation," this is a relatively new term in the history of monetary thought and can be defined in several different ways, that is, as to its cause or to its effects. In the period literature that you're using as original source documents, I would imagine there is word which refers to money losing its value, depreciation, and, in this context, its connotation might refer to money losing its value in terms of its metallic content rather than its market purchasing power or value in exchange. If this is so, my guess is that this is not an early expression of the quantity theory of money, but rather that of the commodity theory of money. For development of this latter doctrine, I would refer you to Irving Fisher's theory for "standardizing" the dollar and Patinkin's discussion of Fisher's concept. For example, a King could sweat all coins in circulation for some of their metallic content and put the extracted metal in his hoard, the commodity school would say the coins have lost value while the quantity school would say their value remains unchanged unless either the number of coins or their face value were change by the King. Chas Anderson ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]