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.
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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
_____________________________ 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
___________________________ 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
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