Recovering Unnoticed Ideas: On the English Translation of Davanzati’s "Lezione delle Monete"

B. Davanzati J. TolandLezione delle monete

(1588)A Discourse upon Coins (1696)

Publication historyScisma d'Inghilterra con altre operette del sig. Bernardo Dauanzati al serenissimo Ferdinando Secondo Gran Duca di Toscana, Firenze, 1638

Prose fiorentine raccolte dallo Smarrito [pseud.] accademico della Crusca, Firenze, 1729

De monetis Italiae variorum virorum illustrium dissertationes, F. Argelati, ed. Mediolani, Aedes Palatinae, 1752.

Scrittori classici italiani di economia politica, P. Custodi, ed. Parte Antica, Tomo II, Milano, 1804

Notizie mercantili delle monete e de' cambi. L. Carrer, ed. Venezia, 1840.

Le opere di Bernardo Davanzati, E.M. Bindi, ed., Firenze, 1852

Publication historyLezione delle

monete e notizia de' cambj,

S. Ricossa, ed., Torino, 1988

Publication history

A discourse upon coins,

J. Toland, transl., London, 1696

Jacobi BornitI ... De Nummis in Repub. Percutiendis & Conservandis Libri Duo, Hanoviæ: Typis Wechelianis apud Claudium Marnium & heredes Ioannis Aubrii,

Sparse mistakes

Maffeo Pantaleoni, dates the Lezione delle monete to 1582 in The Palgrave Dictionary of Political Economy

(1894)

Sparse mistakes

Ricossa dates the english translation to 1646...

Sparse mistakes

When John Toland was not even born!

Sparse mistakes

Lezione delle monete

Money is specie

Money is primarily a medium of exchange

Money results of “spontaneous order”

Coins should not be altered

Two insights ahead of times: Subjective theory of value and quantitative theory of money

Lezione delle monete

Ferdinando Galiani, Della moneta, 1750

“It is typical of an annoying and troublesome old man to suggest that coining should be dismissed with, and to praise the Chinese for having done that—who precisely for this reason, in addition to their language and writing, deserve our blame and disdain.”

The English economy in 1696Bimetallic system

Nine years war

Worn coins

Clipping

The essential component of a specie standard is that the market price of precious metals ≈ mint price of the coin

This was the basic problem of the 1690s: as the bullion market price of silver rose, there were profits to be made from clipping the coinage. By 1696 over 50% of the precious metal content of the coinage was removed.

The English economy in 1696William Lowndes, A Report Containing an Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins, London , 1695.

John Locke, Some Considerations of the consequences of Lowering the Interest, and Raising the Value of Money, London, 1691

Id, Further Considerations Concerning Raising the Value of Money, London, 1695

Similarities between Locke and Davanzati

Metallism: Value is in the content, denomination is a mere name

“Common consent” not public authority determines that silver is money

Government should never tamper with money, not even in times of crisis

The coining of gold and silver is merely a convenience undertaken to facilitate commerce

A stable currency can reflect the relative scarcity of goods and services

On Toland’s Translation

Different highlighted lines: Toland underscores the passages on the consequences of devaluation. Dav. underscores the passages on the causes of devaluation (i.e., government’s greed)

Numbered paragraphs in English vs. Colloquial tone in Italian

Italian version praised for the form, English version praised for the content

(Toland’s preface on mercantile knowledge resumed by Ricossa)

An example

“Che se [la precedente politica] durata fosse, come da 12. a 1. la moneta scemò, così l’un a 12. foran i pregi delle cose cresciuti”

“However, had it continu’d, does it not follow, that as Money was brought down from twelve to one, so the Prices of things would be rais’d from one to twelve?”

Translation or transformation?

Davanzati’s concluding remark: “not for your instruction, Gentlemen, but for you entertainment”

English translation seems inspired by the opposite intention

Thank you