Was Shakespeare an economic thinker?

Abstract

Was Shakespeare an economic thinker? To Karl Marx, who freely quoted the playwright in confirmation of various assertions in Capital, at least Shakespeare's characters were. Prior to claiming that money is a “radical leveler…[that] does away with all distinctions” (Marx 1967, I, p. 132), for instance, Marx famously cites Timon's diatribe on gold from Timon of Athens (1607):Gold, yellow, glittering, precious gold!Thus much of this, will make black white; foul, fair;Wrong, right; base, noble; old, young; coward, valiant.… What this, you gods? Why, thisWill lug your priests and servants from your sides;Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads;This yellow slaveWill knit and break religions; bless the accurs’d;Make the hoar leprosy ador’d; place thieves,And give them title, knee and approbation,With senators on the bench; this is it,That makes the wappen’d widow wed again:…Come damned earth,[Thou] common whore of mankind.

Citation

Bruster, D. (2006), "Was Shakespeare an economic thinker?", Samuels, W.J., Biddle, J.E. and Emmett, R.B. (Ed.) Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology (Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 24 Part 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 167-180. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0743-4154(06)24010-0