Edward Misselden

Last updated March 26, 2019

Edward Misselden (fl. 1608–1654) was an English merchant, and leading member of the writers in the Mercantilist group of economic thought. He argued that international movements of money and fluctuations in the exchange rate depended upon the international trade flows and not the manipulations of the bankers, which was the popular view at the time. He suggested that trading returns should be established for purposes of statistical analysis, so that the state could regulate trade with a view to obtaining export surpluses.

Floruit, abbreviated fl., Latin for "he/she flourished", denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the word may also be used as a noun indicating the time when someone flourished.

Money Object or record accepted as payment

Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment. Any item or verifiable record that fulfils these functions can be considered as money.

In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in relation to another currency. For example, an interbank exchange rate of 114 Japanese yen to the United States dollar means that ¥114 will be exchanged for each US$1 or that US$1 will be exchanged for each ¥114. In this case it is said that the price of a dollar in relation to yen is ¥114, or equivalently that the price of a yen in relation to dollars is $1/114.

Life

He was deputy-governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company at Delft from 1623 until 1633. On his departure from England (October 1623) the East India Company invited him to act as one of their commissioners at Amsterdam to negotiate a private treaty with the Dutch; he had probably been employed by the Merchant Adventurers' Company in 1616 in a similar capacity. His fellow-commissioner was Robert Barlow, East India merchant. The negotiations, however, were fruitless, and the report of the Amboyna massacre made progress difficult.^[1]

The Company of Merchant Adventurers of London was a trading company founded in the City of London in the early 15th century. It brought together leading merchants in a regulated company in the nature of a guild. Its members' main business was exporting cloth, especially white (undyed) broadcloth, in return for a large range of foreign goods.

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad.

The East India Company (EIC), also known as the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) or the British East India Company and informally as John Company, Company Bahadur, or simply The Company, was an English and later British joint-stock company. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with Mughal India and the East Indies, and later with Qing China. The company ended up seizing control over large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia, and colonised Hong Kong after a war with Qing China.

In low health, Misselden returned to England, and presented to the company an account of the negotiations (3 November 1624). He returned to Delft at the end of November 1624, and during the next four years he was again employed by the East India Company in the Amboyna matter. He was also entrusted with the negotiations on behalf of the Merchant Adventurers' Company for a reduction of the duties on English cloth. Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, believed that he had been bribed by the Dutch, while the States-General, on the other hand, suspected him of compromising their interests by sending secret information to England, and confronted him (October 1628) with some of his letters. Missenden was aggrieved at his treatment, and declined to have anything further to do with the East India Company's affairs. His case was taken up by the privy council, and reparation was made (1628).^[1]

Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester was an English art collector, diplomat and Secretary of State.

The Hague is a city on the western coast of the Netherlands and the capital of the province of South Holland. It is also the seat of government of the Netherlands.

Misselden supported William Laud's schemes for bringing the practice of the English congregations abroad into conformity with that of the Church of England. The merchant adventurers at Delft were strongly presbyterian, and John Forbes, their preacher, exercised great influence. Misselden's attempts to impose the Book of Common Prayer were met by plots to eject him from his position, and he and Forbes were bitterly opposed. He was ultimately turned out, and the company chose in his place Samuel Avery, a presbyterian.^[1]

William Laud was an English archbishop and academic. He was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633, during the personal rule of Charles I. Arrested in 1640, he was executed in 1645.

The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.

Two years later (1635) abortive attempts were made to obtain his election as deputy-governor at Rotterdam, and Charles I addressed a letter to the Merchant Adventurers' Company vainly recommending them to deprive Robert Edwards who was in the post. Behind this lay the fact that Missenden had furnished Philip Burlamachi with large sums for the king's service, and in May 1633, £13,000 remained unpaid.^[1]

Rotterdam is the second-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, at the mouth of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte, after which people settled around it for safety. In 1340, Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland.

Charles I was the monarch over the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.

Philip Burlamachi was a major financial intermediary of King Charles I of England, and is remembered as the inventor of the concept of a central bank.

Misselden was subsequently employed by the Merchant Adventurers' Company on missions. Around 1650 he was in Hamburg, and tried to make himself useful to the Parliamentary regime; but his reputation as a royalist told against him.^[1]

Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany with a population of over 1.8 million.

Writings

Misselden's economic writings were prompted mainly by the appointment of the standing commission on trade (1622). In his Free Trade, or the Means to make Trade flourish, London, 1622, he discussed the causes of the alleged decay of trade, which he attributed to excessive consumption of foreign commodities, exportation of bullion by the East India Company, and defective searching in the cloth trade. His object appears to have been to disarm the opposition to the regulated companies, especially the Merchant Adventurers', and turn it against the joint-stock associations.^[1]

The views he put forth on the East India trade were inconsistent with those he advocated in the following year. Gerard Malynes immediately attacked his pamphlet, opposing the principles of foreign exchange. In reply Misselden published The Circle of Commerce, or the Ballance of Trade, in Defence of Free Trade, opposed to Malynes' " Little Fish and his Great Whale," and poized against them in the Scale, London, 1623. After dealing with Malynes's views, and stating a theory of exchange, he discussed the balance of trade. He defended the exportation of bullion on the ground that by the re-exportation of the commodities the country was thus enabled to purchase, the treasure of the nation was augmented. His theory of the balance of trade is similar to that later developed by Thomas Mun.^[1]

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 s:Misselden, Edward (DNB00)

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Misselden, Edward". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

External links

Free Trade or, The Meanes To Make Trade Florish

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[DNB-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 s:Misselden, Edward (DNB00)