Richard Cantillon (1680s–1734) was an Irish economist and author of
Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général (Essay on the Nature of
Trade in General), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be
the "cradle of political economy". Although little information exists
on Cantillon's life, it is known that he became a successful banker and
merchant at an early age. Essai remains Cantillon's only surviving
contribution to economics. It was written around 1730 and circulated
widely in manuscript form, but was not published until 1755. Despite
having much influence on the early development of the physiocrat and
classical schools of thought, Essai was largely forgotten until its
rediscovery by Jevons in the late 19th century. During the late 1710s
and early 1720s, Cantillon speculated in, and later helped fund, John
Law's Mississippi Company, from which he acquired great wealth.
Cantillon's entrepreneurial success, however, came at a cost to his
debtors, who pursued him with lawsuits, criminal charges, and even
murder plots until his death in 1734.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cantillon>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1226:
Tran Thu Do, head of the Tran clan of Vietnam, forced Ly Hue Tong, the
last emperor of the Ly dynasty, to commit suicide.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tran_Thu_Do>
1863:
Seventeen-year old Danish Prince Vilhelm arrived in Athens to become
George I , King of Greece.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Greece>
1960:
Surgeon and scientist Michael Woodruff performed the first successful
kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal
Infirmary.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Woodruff>
1961:
The Soviet hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba was detonated over Novaya Zemlya
Island in the Arctic Sea as a test. With a yield of around 50 megatons,
it was the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated to date.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba>
1991:
The Madrid Conference, an early attempt by the international community
to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the
Arab countries, convened in Madrid, Spain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_Conference_of_1991>
1995:
In a referendum, the province of Quebec voted by a very narrow margin
of 50.58 percent in favour of remaining a part of Canada.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_independence_referendum%2C_1995>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
catalyst (n):
1. A chemical substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction
without being consumed in the process.
2. Someone or something that encourages progress or change
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/catalyst>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other
sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation
ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other
arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to
study mathematics and philosophy.
--John Adams
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams>