Three Lectures on the Value of Money, Delivered Before the University of Oxford, in 1829

Three Lectures on the Value of Money is by Nassau William Senior (1790-1864), the English classical economist and first Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford. The three lectures address one of the central technical questions of classical English political economy: how the value of money is determined and what causes the various changes in the general price level that monetary economies experience.

The question of the value of money was particularly important in nineteenth century English economic policy because of the country’s commitment to the gold standard. The Bank Charter Act of 1844, which formalized the gold standard arrangement and regulated the issuance of paper currency by the Bank of England, was substantially influenced by the theoretical work that Senior and his contemporaries had produced on monetary questions.

Senior’s substantial contributions to classical English economics included theoretical work on value, rent, wages, and money. His methodological emphasis on rigorous deductive reasoning from established principles influenced J. S. Mill and the broader development of nineteenth century English economic thought.