Richard Cantillon: Entrepreneur and Economist

Abstract This book analyses the career and writings of the enigmatic Irish‐born economist Richard Cantillon, a banker and entrepreneur. Cantillon's work is examined in the context of the stock market speculation generated by John Law's Mississippi System and the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Cantillon was an active trader in this period and made a considerable fortune by correctly anticipating the market crashes of both the Mississippi Company and the South Sea Bubble. Cantillon's Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755) was one of the great analytical works of economics of the eighteenth century. In it, Cantillon showed how to construct a basic model of the macroeconomy and the role of money in such a model. Cantillon was the first to introduce the role of the entrepreneur into economic analysis. He also provided considerable insights into value theory, the circular flow of income, the monetary approach to the balance of payments, and the law of one price. It is contended that his book represents an intellectual refutation of John Law's System. Cantillon's murder in London in 1734 raises some intriguing questions as to what exactly may have happened.