Antonio Serra

Antonio Serra (b. mid-16th century in Cosenza; † after 1613 ) was an Italian mercantilist.

Life

Antonio Serra was born around the middle of the 16th century in Cosenza. About the year of death is not known. Most likely he died in prison, where he presumably because of his alleged involvement in the conspiracy of Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639), philosopher and author of " The Sunshine State ", was detained.

Mercantilist philosophy Antonio Serra

Serra was a typical representative of mercantilism. The mercantilist writers and princes were convinced that the abundance of gold and silver make a country rich. Therefore, they envied the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, because these countries brought shiploads of gold and silver to Europe from their overseas colonies. That by the circulating enormous gold and silver money drove prices up, they did not seem to great. Their credo was: 's own country with the export of goods to make you rich and might damage abroad; all the way to the mercantilist principle that for every transaction the profit on the one hand 'm facing a loss on the other.

Since the Italian states had no gold and silver mines, to Serra different ways that they could still be amply supplied with money thought. He made an accurate analysis of the economic situation in Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries and was convinced that the goal of an abundant supply of money also by promoting trade, commerce and transport, by a high level of education of the population as well as additional measures of government could be achieved.

Importance and performance

Ferdinando Galiani (1728-1787), a classic of political economy, wrote in his treatise Della Moneta, that anyone who read this treatise, certainly surprised and puzzled remain about the many clear and correct ideas that the author had to subject about which he wrote in a century of complete ignorance of the economic sciences; and with how much common sense if she were judging the causes of other ills as well as the only effective remedies. Galiani had no doubt Serra to call first and oldest writers of political and economic science and Calabria to treat these previously unknown fame, since this region Serra had produced. Galiani dare this man with the Frenchman and the Englishman John Locke Malun compare, according to him, he surpassed even these two, because Serra have lived much earlier and in a century of darkness and errors in economic science. This man, of such a shrewd intellect and a so- healthy judgment, had been despised throughout his life. After his death, he and remained forgotten his book.

Works

• Breve trattato delle cause che possono far abbondare li regni d' oro e d' argento, dove non sono miniere, con applicazione al Regno di Napoli, Napoli 1613. ( Short Treatise on the reasons as states where there are no mines, can be amply supplied with gold and silver, with special reference to the Kingdom of Naples. )