At the time of Shakespeare, the world mostly operated under an economic system known as mercantilism, in which more value was placed on gold (as money) than on commodities or merchandise. This belief caused mercantilists to further believe their wealth was their money, an idea Adam Smith would eventually refute in Wealth of Nations.
But that’s getting ahead of ourselves because Adam Smith was writing 150 years after Shakespeare.
Because mercantilists believed gold was more valuable than merchandise, seen almost as worthless trifles, they were eager to export their merchandise to other countries for which they would be paid in gold. In fact, when articulating mercantilist policy, Sir Francis Bacon’s rival jurist, Edward Coke, refers to such merchandise as “trifles.”
Francis Bacon, though, was often at odds with the mercantilist economics of his day. In Book 8 of The Advancement of Learning, Bacon expressed an anti-mercantilist position when discussing the nature of money. He wrote that the sinews of fortune are not money, i.e., money is not wealth. He then elaborated, saying: “[I]t is not Monies that is the sinews of Fortune, but the sinews rather and abilities of the Mind, Wit, Courage, Audacity, Resolution, Moderation, Industry, and the like.”
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