Religion and the rise of capitalism

by R. H. Tawney

[46] The facts are given by Arturo Segre, Storia del Commercio, vol. i, p. 223. For a fuller account of credit and money-lending in Florence, see Doren, Studien aus der Florentiner Wirthschaftsgeschichte, vol. i, pp. 173-209.

[47] Bruno Kuske, Quellen zur Geschichte des Kölner Handels und Verkehrs im Mittelalter, vol. iii, 1923, pp. 197-8.

[48] Early English Text Society, The Coventry Leet Book, ed. M. D. Harris, 1907-13, p. 544.

[49] Wyclif, On the Seven Deadly Sins, chap. xxiv (Works of Wyclif, ed. T. Arnold, vol. iii, pp. 154-5). The word rendered “loan” is “leeve” [? leene] in the text.

[50] For examples of such cases see Early Chancery Proceedings, Bdle. lxiv, nos. 291 and 1089; Bdle. xxxvii, no. 38; Bdle. xlvi, no. 307. They are discussed in some detail in my introduction to Thomas Wilson’s Discourse upon Usury, 1925, pp. 28-9.

[51] Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Lothian, p. 27; Selden Soc., Leet Jurisdiction in the City of Norwich, p. 35.

[52] Aquinas, Summa Theol., 1^a 2^æ, Q. xcv, art. ii.

[53] On the Seven Deadly Sins, chap. xxiv (Works of Wyclif, ed. T. Arnold, vol. iii, p. 153): “Bot men of lawe and marchauntis and chapmen and vitelers synnen more in avarice then done pore laboreres. And this token hereof; for now ben thei pore, and now ben thei ful riche, for wronges that thei done.”

[54] E.g., Ægidius Lessinus, De Usuris, cap. ix, pt. i: “Tantum res estimatur juste, quantum ad utilitatem possidentis refertur, et tantum juste valet, quantum sine fraude vendi potest.... Omnis translatio facta libera voluntate dominorum juste fit;” Johannes Buridanus, Quæstiones super decem libros Ethicorum Aristotelis, v, 23: “Si igitur rem suam sic alienat, ipse secundum suam estimationem non damnificatur, sed lucratur; igitur non injustum patitur.” Both writers are discussed by Schreiber (op. cit., pp. 161-71 and 177-91). The theory of Buridanus appears extraordinarily modern; but he is careful to emphasize that prices should be fixed “secundum utilitatem et necessitatem totius communitatis,” not “penes necessitatem ementis vel vendentis.”

[55] St. Antonino, Summa Theologica, pars ii, tit. i, cap. viii, § 1, and cap. xvi, § iii. An account of St. Antonino’s theory of prices is given by Ilgner, Die volkswirthschaftlichen Anschauungen Antonins von Florenz, chap. iv; Jarrett, St. Antonino and Mediæval Economics; and Schreiber, op. cit., pp. 217-23. Its interest consists in the attempts to maintain the principle of the just price, while making allowance for practical necessities.