Nicholas Barbon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nicholas Barbon
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Portrait of Nicholas Barbon.
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| Born | c. 1640 London
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| Died | c. 1698 |
| Other names | Nicholas Barebon, Nicholas Barebone, |
| Occupation | Physician, economist and builder |
| Known for | Fire insurance; property development; economic theory; speculation; middle name |
Nicholas Barbon (c. 1640 – c. 1698) was an English economist, a doctor, and a financial thinker. He is known for his ideas about how markets work, especially after the terrible Great Fire of London.
After the Great Fire, Nicholas Barbon became very busy helping to rebuild London. He was a property developer, which means he built many houses and streets. He also helped create new ways to pay for these buildings, like fire insurance and mortgages. These ideas were quite new at the time.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Nicholas Barbon was born in London around 1640. His father was Praise-God Barebone, a famous person from that time. Nicholas's father gave him a very long and unusual name: "If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned". This kind of name was sometimes given by religious families in the 1600s.
Nicholas studied medicine in the Netherlands, at Leiden and Utrecht. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1661. A few years later, he became an honorary member of the Royal College of Physicians in London.
Building London: Property Development
After studying medicine, Barbon decided to become a builder. This was a very important job after the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire destroyed over 13,000 houses in the city!
Within a few years, Nicholas Barbon became one of the most important builders in London. He built many houses at once, often around new squares. Most of his projects were to the west of the City of London, where there was a lot of empty land.
Barbon helped connect the City of London to Westminster, where the government was located. He built new areas along the Strand, Bloomsbury, St Giles, and Holborn. He often built quickly, even when there were old rules against new buildings. He sometimes tore down old buildings without permission to make way for his new projects.
In 1684, Barbon started a big building project near Gray's Inn, an area where many lawyers lived. The lawyers were not happy because his new buildings would block their views. There were even fights between Barbon's workers and the lawyers! But Barbon managed to finish his building plans.
New Ideas: Insurance and Mortgages
Nicholas Barbon was also a pioneer in the world of money and business. He helped create new ways for people to protect their homes and borrow money.
In 1680, he started an "Insurance Office for Houses" with 11 partners. This office offered fire insurance to thousands of homes in London. This was very important because fires were a huge danger back then. The Great Fire of London showed everyone how much protection was needed.
In 1690, Barbon also helped start Britain's first land bank. This bank offered mortgages, which are loans that use property as a guarantee. This meant landowners could borrow money using the value of their land. This idea was very popular.
Barbon also became a Member of Parliament for Bramber in 1690 and 1695. This helped him with his business dealings. He even tried to create a system to pump drinking water from the River Thames to his new buildings.
Thinking About Money: Economic Theory
Later in his life, Nicholas Barbon wrote many books and pamphlets about economic theory. His ideas were very new and important for understanding money, trade, and how supply and demand work. His most famous book was A Discourse of Trade (1690).
Barbon noticed how important fashion and luxury goods were for trade. He believed that people buying new things just because they were fashionable, even if their old things still worked, created a constant need for goods. This was a new idea at the time.
He also had interesting ideas about interest (the extra money you pay when you borrow). He said that interest wasn't just about money itself. Instead, he thought it was like paying "rent" for using goods or property that you bought with the borrowed money.
One of Barbon's main ideas was that money itself didn't have a special "value." He argued that the value of things like gold and silver was mostly decided by supply and demand. This was a big challenge to the old idea of mercantilism, which said a country's wealth was measured by how much gold and silver it had. Barbon believed that money's main job was to help people trade things.
He also thought that a country's wealth was linked to how many people lived there. He supported using paper money and credit money, and he thought that lowering interest rates would help businesses grow.
Even though some of his ideas were very important, some people thought Barbon's writings were a bit disorganized. But his work helped lay the groundwork for modern economic thinking.
Later Life and Legacy
Nicholas Barbon built a house for himself and his businesses in Crane Court, London. Later, he moved to Osterley House, a large mansion west of London.
By the time he died, Barbon had built or helped pay for buildings worth a huge amount of money for his time. He passed away at Osterley in 1698 or 1699.
Today, a street in central London called Barbon Close is named after him, near Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.
Works
- A Discourse Shewing the Great Advantages that New-buildings and the Enlarging of Towns and Cities do Bring to a Nation (1678)
- A Letter to a Gentleman in the Country, Giving an Account of the Two Insurance - Offices; the Fire-Office & Friendly-Society (1684)
- Apology for the Builder; or a Discourse showing the Cause and Effects of the Increase of Building (1685)
- A Discourse of Trade (1690)
- An Answer to Paper Entituled, Reasons against Reducing Interest to Four per Cent (1694)
- A Discourse Concerning Coining the New Money Lighter (1696)
Images for kids
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Discourse of trade, 1690
