igoS.] 



COPERNICUS AND GRESHAM. 25 



economist died on July ii, 1382, regretted especially by the scholars 

 of his day. 



The economic truths that Oresme so well stated in his treatise 

 on money did not become widely known, for his work was written 

 for his king's information, and Gutenberg had not yet made it pos- 

 sible through printing to give them a wide circulation. The truths 

 that Oresme taught and upon which Charles the Wise acted, to the 

 profit of his kingdom and therefore of himself, became in great 

 measure forgotten. A century and a half after Oresme's death 

 they were rediscovered and restated a second time. In the year 

 1526, in a Latin treatise entitled " Monete Cudende Ratio," written 

 at the request of Sigismund the First, King of Poland, and his Chan- 

 cellor, Szydlowiecki, Nicolas Copernicus of Thorn in Prussia, who 

 had elucidated for mankind some of the celestial harmonies, gave 

 to the world an exposition of some of the economic truths. Inde- 

 pendently of the work of Oresme, of which the Prusso-Polish 

 scholar knew nothing, Copernicus made clear for his sovereign that 

 two moneys of unequal value could not be kept in circulation at the 

 same time. " Gold or silver," he writes, " marked with an imprint, 

 constitutes the money which serves to determine the price of things 

 that are bought and sold, according to the laws established by the 

 State or the Prince. Money is therefore in some sort a common 

 measure of estimating values ; but this measure must always be fixed 

 and must conform to the established rule. Otherwise, there would 

 be, necessarily, disorder in the State : buyers and sellers would at 

 all times be misled, as if the ell, the bushel or the weights did not 

 maintain constant quantity. 



" The establishment of money has necessity for cause. Though in weigh- 

 ing only gold and silver it would have been possible to practice exchanges, 

 those metals, from the unanimous consent of men, being considered every- 

 where as precious things, nevertheless there would be numerous inconveni- 

 ences to have to carry always weights along, and, all the world not being apt 

 to recognize at the first glance the purity of gold and silver, it is agreed 

 everywhere to have money marked by government with a stamp designed to 

 show how much each coin contains of gold and silver and to serve as a 

 guaranty to public faith." 



Then he explains how the value of metal pieces is changed and 

 depreciated. 



