Mun came into the public eye during the economic depression which began in 1620. The books for which he is famous sprang entirely from that depression. The gravest symptom of the depression was the shortage of money, and, indeed, many regarded this shortage as a cause of the depression. In 1621 Mun wrote and published A Discourse of Trade From England Unto the East-Indies to answer the charge that the East India Company, which financed its trade largely by the export of silver coin, was responsible for the depression. His argument was that East Indian goods, when reexported, earned more silver than that originally exported to pay for them.