Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vanderlint, Jacob
VANDERLINT, JACOB (d. 1740), economic writer, was a timber merchant at Blackfriars, London. In 1734 he published an economic treatise of some value entitled ‘Money Answers all Things; or an Essay to make Money plentiful among all Ranks of People and increase our Foreign and Domestick Trade,’ London, 8vo. In this work he laid down clearly several theories which have since been developed by later economists, pointing out in particular the principle that nominal prices vary according to the abundance or scarcity of money. He proposed to improve the commercial condition of England by reducing the general rental twenty per cent., which he ingeniously endeavoured to prove would be of no detriment to the landlord on account of the general cheapening of labour and commodities which would follow. His book is lucidly written, and is an interesting exposition of the principles which guided the commercial part of the nation, and of their points of difference with the landed class. Vanderlint died in February 1739–40.
[McCulloch's Lit. of Pol. Econ. p. 162; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; London Mag. 1740, p. 102; Annals of Europe, 1740, p. 547.]