BARBON, NICHOLAS (c. 164o-1698), English economist, probably the son of Praise-God Barbon, was born in London, studied medicine at Leyden, graduated M.D. at Utrecht in 1661, and was admitted an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians in 1664. He took considerable part in the rebuilding of London after the great fire of 1666, and has a claim to be considered the institutor of fire-insurance in England, which he started somewhere about 1680. He was M.P. for Bramber in 1690 and 1695. He founded a land bank which, according to contemporaries, was fairly successful and was united with that of John Briscoe in 1696. He died in 1698, and appointed John Asgill his executor, with in structions that none of his debts should be paid. His writings are interesting as expressing views much in advance of his time and very near akin to those of modern times on such important topics as value, rent, and foreign trade. Barbon anticipated to some ex tent the conclusions of Adam Smith on the division of labour and the theory of currency as expounded by Ricardo. The more im portant of his works were Apology for the Builder; or a Discourse showing the Cause and Effects of the Increase of Building (1685), in which he discussed the theory of rent ; A Discourse of Trade (169o), which insisted that exports could only be paid for by im ports; and A Discourse Concerning Coining the New Money Lighter (1696).