Malynes, Gerard de (fl. 1586–1623)

Abstract

A merchant of English parentage, born in Antwerp at an unknown date, Malynes was a commissioner of trade in the Low Countries about 1586. He came to London and was frequently consulted on commercial questions by the Privy Council in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. He became an assay master at the mint and obtained a patent to supply farthings; he was imprisoned for a time, complaining later that he had been ruined by being paid in his own coins. He also served as a spy for England. Called on by the standing commission on trade for evidence on the state of the coinage, he published a series of pamphlets on money and prices. A mercantilist and a bullionist, he was heavily influenced by Scholastic literature.