10 Jul Bishop Oresme on Government Inflation
“From the moment when the prince usurps this essentially unjust privilege [to alter the money supply], it is impossible that he can justly take profit from it. Besides, the amount of the prince’s profit is necessarily that of the community’s loss. But whatever loss the prince inflicts on the community is injustice and the act of a tyrant and not of a king, as Aristotle says. And if he should tell the tyrant’s usual lie, that he applies that profit to the public advantage, he must not be believed, because he might as well take my coat and say he needed it for the public service. And Saint Paul says that we are not to do evil that good may come. Nothing therefore should be extorted on the pretense that it will be used for good purposes afterwards.”
Bishop Nicole Orseme, 1320-1382
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