,go8.] COPERNICUS AND GRESHAM. 29 



" When two sorts of Coin are current in the same nation of Hke value 

 by denomination but not intrinsically [that is in commercial value], that 

 which has the least value will be current, and the other as much as possible 

 will be hoarded." 



In 1858 the British economist, Henry Dunning MacLeod, called 

 attention to Gresham's statement of this unwritten law of coinage, 

 and suggested that it should be known as Gresham's Law. At the 

 time he did not know of the more elaborate treatises of Oresme and 

 Copernicus on coinage. But when the works on money of those 

 two master economists were revealed through the efforts of Roscher 

 and Wolowski in 1862 and 1864 to the world at large, MacLeod, 

 like a true scholar who wishes to give credit to whom honor is due, 

 suggested that this economic law, a law more powerful than the 

 statutes enacted by the strongest Parliamentary bodies, should be 

 known after all three of its discoverers as the Law of Oresme, 

 Copernicus and Gresham. 



During the centuries, many nations in various parts of the world 

 have had abundant experience to learn the futility of attempting to 

 maintain in circulation as currency two moneys at a ratio different 

 from the market or commercial ratio existing at that time between 

 those two kinds of money. In every case where such an effort has 

 been made, the money that is underrated gradually drives that 

 which is overrated from the country. And this nation has had sev- 

 eral experiences with this law. Without touching here upon the 

 works of other economic scholars, such as Petty, Locke, Wolowski, 

 Jevons, Leon Say, Horton, Bamberger, Laughlin, White and others, 

 who have added to our knowledge of the unwritten laws that govern 

 money as the medium of exchange, it can be safely said that the 

 more the economic experience of the human race is studied, the 

 more does it become clear that any attempt to tamper with the cur- 

 rency of a nation by injecting a debased money into its measure of 

 value is certain to end in disaster through the working of that nat- 

 ural law of finance, the Law of Oresme, Copernicus and Gresham. 



