![Antonio serra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Antonio_serra.png)
Antonio Serra was a late 16th-century
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
philosopher and economist in the
mercantilist
Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce ...
tradition.
Biography
Little is known about Serra's life. He was born in
Cosenza in the late 16th century (the dates of his birth and death are unknown
Alessandro Roncaglia
Alessandro Roncaglia (1947) is an Italian economist. He was professor of economics at the Sapienza University of Rome
The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rom ...
, ''The wealth of ideas: a history of economic thought'', Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 48.). When working in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, he applied himself to solving the enormous social and economic problems created by the Spanish viceroy system. In 1613 Serra was jailed for unknown reasons but possibly due to his involvement in a conspiracy with the philosopher
Tommaso Campanella
Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.
He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and w ...
attempting to free
Calabria
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
from the Spanish domination.
In his treatise, ''Breve trattato delle cause che possono far abbondare li regni d’oro e d’argento dove non sono miniere'', Serra analysed the causes of the shortage of coin in the
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...
and the factors that could have reversed this
economic trend
*all the economic indicators that are the subject of economic forecasting
**see also: econometrics
*general trends in the economy, see: economic history
Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. R ...
. He was the first to analyse and fully understand the concept of balance of trade for both visible goods and invisible services and capital movements. He explained how the shortage of coin in the Kingdom of Naples was due to balance of payments deficit. Using his findings he was able to reject the popular idea at the time that the scarcity in money was due to the exchange rate. The solution to the problem was found in the active encouragement of exports.
English translations
* Serra, Antonio (1613), ''A Short Treatise on the Wealth and Poverty of Nations'' edited by Sophus A. Reinert (2011), Anthem Press
References
Sources
Short biographyAntonio Serra: A Neglected Herald of the Acquisitive System
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serra, Antonio
16th-century births
17th-century deaths
17th-century Italian philosophers
People from Cosenza
Italian economists
Mercantilists