Gerard De Malynes and the theory of the foreign exchanges

Althoungh Malynes has been mentioned by most writers on the history of English economic throught, his ideas have not been analyzed carefully. An advisor to Elizabeth and James I, Malynes was throughout his life concerned with monetary problems. His controversial writings were largely devoted to explainging the abuses which he thought existed in the fooreign exchange market. His analysis, however, began with the usuty problem; and it was in tracing the causes of usurious practices, that he turned his attention to the foreign exchanges. In his opinion, to allow unrestriced purchase and sale of foreign exchange was to court disaster; such administrative nihlism would endanger the poor, would allow unscrupulous exchange dealers to fleece unskillful merchants. Lastly, he allarged thath usury conceales in foreign exchange delaing would embarrass all English merchants and occasion an efflux of money. Assailed from many quarters and especially by Edward Misselend and Thomas Mun, Malynes refused to give ground. His brave stand was in vain; but his obdurate attitude compelled his adversaries to formulate an alternative theory of foreign exchange.