----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 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 ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]