New money doesn't hit an economy all at once — it arrives in a queue

Richard Cantillon observed that whoever receives newly created money first can spend it at old prices, while everyone else only feels the effect later, after prices have already risen. The result is that money creation quietly redistributes wealth toward those closest to its source. His essay, written around 1730, is considered one of the first systematic treatises on economics.

— Richard Cantillon, Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général — written c. 1730, published 1755
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