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Peter Stillman suggested Aristotle as one important historical root of
medieval just price doctrine. This is certainly right. Rather than in his
work Politics, however, the pivot should be located in the Nicomachean
Ethics, where Aristotle states that commutative justice requires
equivalence between what is received and what is given. But a second
important source of medieval just price doctrine is Roman law (Digest),
where one finds rules against exploitation of a buyer's affection or desire
for a particular article. I am not familiar with Great Fires, but in this
context these line of thought and its concerns about taking advantage of
special needs could be relevant.
The authoritative source of scholastic just price doctrine is Thomas
Aquinas, particularly his Summa Theologica. As with most scholastic
authors, however, passages relating to price - not being a main focus of
the work - are often scattered and sometimes even (seemingly) conflicting.
Overall, it can be said that the Scholastic writers were more favorable to
the market price than is often assumed. Several of them regarded the common
estimate arrived at in the market - under normal conditions - to be
inclined to cancel out disparate personal judgements and to establish value
commensurate with the objective qualities of the commodity. Accordingly,
they were especially hostile toward monopoly situations.
A concise and very readable description of the medieval just price doctrine
and its roots can be found in Barry Gordon's Economic Analysis before Adam
Smith (London 1975, chs. 6-8). Roger Backhouse has already mentioned Odd
Langholm's outstanding work. In this context, I would especially point to
his Price and Value in the Aristotelian Tradition: A study in scholastic
economic sources (Bergen etc.: Universitetsforlaget), although the book is
probably hard to get hold of. Fortunately, most of the analysis found its
way into Langholm's extensive Economics in the medieval schools: Wealth,
exchange, value, money and usury according to the Paris theological
tradition (Leiden and New York: Brill, 1992). Still helpful might also be
Raymond de Roover's "The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic
Policy", which appeared 1958 in the Journal of Economic History, Vol.
18(4).
Thomas Moser
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