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The justice of the just price

Author

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  • O. F. Hamouda
  • B. B. Price

Abstract

The medieval notion of the just price was an outcome of neither an exclusively economic analysis nor a completely ethical argument, but an amalgam of some features of each. At issue is the significance the medievals attached to the concepts of price and justice and how an integrated economics and ethics made for a mode of reasoning about price different from the endogenousty focused price theory and limited boundaries of modern economics. It is argued in 'The Justice of the Just Price' that the treatment of price in medieval economic thought cannot be grasped without a comprehensive approach to its determination. The argument will first focus separately on the description of the medieval notions of price (cost of production, need, etc.) and of justice (virtue/vice) as features of the medieval concept of the just price. It proposes that, by virtue of the fact that the premises of the medieval system of analysis assumed greed as a nefarious part of human economic behaviour and presupposed the necessity of justice prior to exchange, medieval intellectuals justified on ethical grounds the interference of the just price in market activity and attempted to rectify the inequalities of exchange and distribution through the institutional regulations of Church and court.

Suggested Citation

  • O. F. Hamouda & B. B. Price, 1997. "The justice of the just price," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 191-216.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:4:y:1997:i:2:p:191-216
    DOI: 10.1080/10427719700000036
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lambert, Thomas, 2019. "Bankers as Immoral? The Parallels between Aquinas’s Views on Usury and Marxian Views of Banking and Credit," MPRA Paper 97741, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Pierre Januard, 2021. "Analysis risk and commercial risk: the first treatment of usury in Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 599-634, July.
    3. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risky exchanges: price and justice in Thomas Aquinas’s De emptione et venditione ad tempus," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 729-769, July.
    4. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risks on Trade: The Activity of the Merchant in Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences," Post-Print halshs-03515973, HAL.
    5. André Lapidus & Pierre Januard, 2024. "Usury and simony Trading for no price: Thomas Aquinas on money loans, sacraments and exchange - Chapter 7," Post-Print hal-04396111, HAL.
    6. S. Drakopoulos & G.N. Gotsis, 2004. "A Meta-theoretical Assessment of the Decline of Scholastic Economics," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 19-45, January.
    7. Marek Hudon, 2006. "Fair interest rates when lending to the poor: Are fair prices derived from basic principles of justice?," Working Papers CEB 06-015.RS, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

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