Although no less an authority than Joseph A. Schumpeter proclaimed that Antonio Serra was the world's first economist, he remains something of a dark horse of economic historiography. Nearly nothing is known about Serra except that he wrote and died in jail, and his 'Short Treatise' is so rare that only nine original copies are known to have survived the ravages of time. What, then, can a book written nearly four centuries ago tell us about the problems we now face? Serra's key insight, studying the economies of Venice and Naples, was that wealth was not the result of climate or providence...

Against the backdrop of today s renewed uncertainty over the present economic system, this timely volume presents Martin Luther s contribution to the modern economic sciences, providing a detailed introduction and revised translation of his major pamphlet on economic matters, On Commerce and Usury ( Von Kauffshandlung vnd Wucher, 1524). In his teachings on indulgences Luther picked up on the question of hoarding money, and was among the earliest voices in early modern Europe calling for an ethical economics. Luther s work prefigured many later contributions to modern economic theory, from...