David Hume
Main article: David HumeDavid Hume (1711–1776) agreed with North's philosophy and denounced mercantile assumptions. His contributions were set down in Political Discourses (1752), later consolidated in his Essays, Moral, Political, Literary (1777). Added to the fact that it was undesirable to strive for a favourable balance of trade it is, said Hume, in any case impossible.
Hume held that any surplus of exports that might be achieved would be paid for by imports of gold and silver. This would increase the money supply, causing prices to rise. That in turn would cause a decline in exports until the balance with imports is restored.
Read more about this topic: History Of Economic Thought, British Enlightenment
Famous quotes containing the words david and/or hume:
“The world is a cow that is hard to milk,—life does not come so easy,—and oh, how thinly it is watered ere we get it!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Consciousness never deceives.... We learn the influence of our will from experience alone. And experience only teaches us, how one event constantly follows another; without instructing us in the secret connexion, which binds them together, and renders them inseparable.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)