history of the working classes in the Middle Ages is to be found in
Brants, _op. cit._, p. 105. The need for examining concrete economic
phenomena is insisted on in Ryan's _Living Wage_, p. 28.]

[Footnote 3: _De Cont._ We have here a recognition of the principle
that the value of labour is not to be measured by anything extrinsic
to itself, _e.g._ by the value of the product, but by its own natural
function and end, and this function and end is the supplying of the
requirements of human life. The wage must, therefore, be capable of
supplying the same needs that the expenditure of a labourer's energy
is meant to supply. (See Cronin, _Ethics_, vol. ii. p. 390.)]

[Footnote 4: Brants, _op. cit._, p. 118.]

[Footnote 5: The passages from the _Summa_ of Antoninus bearing on the
subject are reprinted in Brants, _op. cit._, p. 120.]

[Footnote 6: _Op. cit._, p. 125.]

[Footnote 7: Brants, _op. cit._, p. 116, quoting _Le Lime du Tresor_
of Brunetto Latini.]


Sec. 5. _Value of the Conception of the Just Price_.

It is probably correct to say that the canonical teaching on just
price was negative rather than positive; in other words, that it did
not so much aim at positively fixing the price at which goods should
be sold, as negatively at indicating the practices in buying and
selling which were unjust. 'The doctrine of just price,' according to
Dr. Ryan, 'may sometimes have been associated with incorrect views
of industrial life, but all competent authorities agree that it was a
fairly sound attempt to define the equities of mediaeval exchanges,
and that it was tolerably successful in practice.'[1] The condition
of mediaeval markets was frequently such that the competition was not
really fair competition, and consequently the price arrived at
by competition would be unfair either to buyer or seller. 'This,'
according to Dr. Cunningham, 'was the very thing which mediaeval
regulation had been intended to prevent, as any attempt to make gain
out of the necessities of others, or to reap profit from unlooked-for
occurrences would have been condemned as extortion. It is by taking
advantage of such fluctuations that money is most frequently made in
modern times; but the whole scheme of commercial life in the
Middle Ages was supposed to allow of a regular profit on each
transaction.'[2] There might be some doubt as to the positive justice
of this or that price; but there could be no doubt as to the injustice
of a price which was enhanced by the necessities of the poor, or the
engrossing of a vital commodity.[3] Merely to buy up the whole supply
of a certain commodity, even if it were bought up by a 'ring' of
merchants, provided that the commodity was resold within the limits
of the just price, was not a sin against justice, though it might be
a sin against charity.[4] If the authorities granted a monopoly, they
must at the same time fix a just price.[5] A monopoly which was not
privileged by the State, and which had for its aim the raising of
the price of goods above the just price was regarded with universal
reprobation.[6] 'Whoever buys up corn, meat, and wine,' says
Trithemius, 'in order to drive up their price and to amass money at
the cost of others is, according to the laws of the Church, no better
than a common criminal. In a well-governed community all arbitrary
raising of prices in the case of articles of food and clothing is
peremptorily stopped; in times of scarcity merchants who have supplies
of such commodities can be compelled to sell them at fair prices; for
in every community care should be taken that all the members should be
provided for, and not only a small number be allowed to grow rich,
and revel in luxury to the hurt and prejudice of the many.[7] Thus the
doctrine of the just price was a deadly weapon with which to fight the
'profiteer.' The engrosser was looked upon as the natural enemy of the
poor; and the power of the trading class was justly reckoned so great,
that in cases of doubt prices were always fixed low rather than high.
In other words, the buyer--that is to say, the community--was the
subject of protection rather than the seller.[8]

[Footnote 1: _The Living Wage_, p. 27.]

[Footnote 2: _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, vol. i. p.
460.]

[Footnote 3: Endemann, _Studien_, vol. ii. p. 60.]

[Footnote 4: Lessius, _De Justitia et Jure_, II. xx. 1, 21.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 6: Langenstein, _De Cont._; Biel, _op. cit._, iv. xv. 11.]

[Footnote 7: Quoted in Janssen, _op. cit._, vol. ii. p. 102.]

[Footnote 8: Roscher, _Geschichte_, p. 12.]

It must at the same time be clearly kept in mind that the seller
was also protected. All the authorities are unanimous that it was as
sinful for the buyer to give too little as for the seller to demand
too much, and it is this aspect of the just price which appears most
favourable in comparison with the theory of price of the classical
economists. In the former case prices were fixed having regard to
the wages necessary for the producer; in the latter the wages of the
producer are determined by the price at which he can sell his
goods, exposed to the competition of machinery or foreign--possibly
slave--labour.[1] According to the _Catholic Encyclopaedia_: 'To the
mediaeval theologian the just price of an article included enough
to pay fair wages to the worker--that is, enough to enable him to
maintain the standard of living of his class.'[2] 'The difference,'
says Dr. Cunningham, 'which emerges according as we start from one
principle or the other comes out most distinctly with reference to
wages. In the Middle Ages wages were taken as a first charge; in
modern times the reward of the labourer cannot but fluctuate in
connection with fluctuations in the utility and market price of the
things. There must always be a connection between wages and prices,
but in the olden times wages were the first charge, and prices on the
whole depended on them, while in modern times wages are, on the other
hand, directly affected by prices.'[3] Dr. Cunningham draws attention
to the fact that the labouring classes rejected the idea of the fixing
of a just price for their services when, from a variety of causes,
a situation arose when they were able to earn by open competition a
reward higher than what was necessary to support them according
to their state in life.[4] Nowadays the reverse has taken place;
unrestricted competition has in many cases resulted in the reduction
of wages to a level below the margin of subsistence; and the general
cry of the working classes is for the compulsory fixing of minimum
rates of wages which will ensure that their subsistence will not be
liable to be impaired by the fluctuations of the markets. What
the workers of the present day look to as a desirable, but almost
unattainable, ideal, was the universal practice in the ages when
economic relations were controlled by Christian principles.

[Footnote 1: Ashley, _op. cit._, vol. i. pt. i. p. 129.]

[Footnote 2: Art. 'Political Economy.']

[Footnote 3: _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, vol. i. p.
461.]

[Footnote 4: _Christianity and Economic Science_, p. 29.]


Sec. 6. _Was the Just Price Subjective or Objective_?

The question whether the just price was essentially subjective or
objective has recently formed the subject matter of an interesting
and ably conducted discussion, provoked by certain remarks in Dr.
Cunningham's _Western Civilisation_.[1] Dr. Cunningham, although
admiring the ethical spirit which animated the conception of the just
price, thought at the same time that the economic ideas underlying the
conception were so undeveloped and unsound that the theory could not
be applied in practice at the present day. 'Their economic analysis
was very defective, and the theory of price which they put forward was
untenable; but the ethical standpoint which they took is well worth
examination, and the practical measures which they recommended appear
to have been highly beneficial in the circumstances in which they had
to deal. Their actions were not unwise; their common-sense morality
was sound; but the economic theories by which they tried to give an
intellectual justification for their rules and their practice were
quite erroneous.... The attempt to determine an ideal price implies
that there can and ought to be stability in relative values and
stability in the measure of values--which is absurd. The mediaeval
doctrine and its application rested upon another assumption which we
have outlived. Value is not a quality which inheres in an object so
that it can have the same worth for everybody; it arises from the
personal preference and needs of different people, some of whom desire
a thing more and some less, some of whom want to use it in one way and
some in another. Value is not objective--intrinsic in the object--but
subjective, varying with the desire and intentions of the possessors
or would-be possessors; and, because it is thus subjective, there
cannot be a definite ideal value which every article ought to possess,
and still more a just price as the measure of that ideal value.' In
these and similar observations to be found in the _Growth of English
History and Commerce_, Dr. Cunningham showed that he profoundly
misunderstood the doctrine of the just price; the objectivity which
he attributed to it was not the objectivity ascribed to it by the
scholastics. It was to correct this misunderstanding that Father
Slater contributed an article to the _Irish Theological Quarterly_[2]
pointing out that the just price was subjective rather than objective.
This article, which was afterwards reprinted in _Some Aspects of Moral
Theology_, and the conclusions of which were embodied in the same
writer's work on Moral Theology, was controverted in a series of
articles by Father Kelleher in the _Irish Theological Quarterly_.[3]

[Footnote 1: Pp. 77-9.]

[Footnote 2: Vol. iv. p. 146.]

[Footnote 1: 'Market Prices,' vol. ix. p. 398 and vol. x. p. 163; and
'Father Slater on Just Price and Value,' vol. xi. p. 159.]

Father Slater draws attention to the fact that Dr. Cunningham
overlooked to some extent the importance of common estimation in
arriving at the just price. He points out that, far from objects being
invested with some immutable objective value, their value was in fact
determined by the price which the community as a whole was willing to
pay for them: 'As the value in exchange will be determined by what the
members of the community at the time are prepared to give, ... it will
be determined by the social estimation of its utility for the support
of life and its scarcity. It will depend upon its capacity to satisfy
the wants and desires of the people with whom commercial transactions
are possible and practicable. Father Slater then goes on categorically
to refute Dr. Cunningham's presentation of the objectivity of price:
'All that that doctrine asserts is that there should be, and that
there is, an equivalent in social value between the commodity and
its price at a certain time and in a certain place; it says nothing
whatever about the stability or permanence of prices at different
times and at different places. By maintaining that the just price did
not depend upon the valuation of the individual buyer or seller the
mediaeval doctors did not dream of making it intrinsic to the object.'
In the work on Moral Theology, to which we have referred, expressions
occur which lead one to believe that Father Slater did not see any
great difference between the mediaeval just price arrived at by common
estimation and the modern normal or market price arrived at by
open competition. Thus, in endeavouring to correct Dr. Cunningham's
misunderstanding, Father Slater seems to have gone too far in the
other direction, and his position has been ably and, in our judgment,
successfully, controverted by Father Kelleher.

The point at issue between the upholders of the two opposing views
on just price is well stated by Father Kelleher in the first of his
articles on the subject: 'We must try to find out whether the just
and fair price determined the rate of exchange, or whether the rate
of exchange, being determined without an objective standard and merely
according to the play of human motives, determines what we call the
just and fair price.'[1] We have already demonstrated that the common
estimation referred to by the mediaeval doctors was something quite
apart from the modern higgling in the market; and that, far from
being merely the result of unbridled competition on both sides, it
was rather the considered judgment of the best-informed members of the
community. As we have seen, even Dr. Cunningham admits that there
was a fundamental difference between the common estimation of
the scholastics and the modern competitive price. This is clearly
demonstrated by Father Kelleher, who further establishes the
proposition that the modern price is purely subjective, and that no
subjective price can rest on an ethical basis. The question at issue
therefore between what we may call the subjective and objective
schools is not whether the sale price was determined by competition
in the modern sense, but whether the common estimation of those best
qualified to form an opinion on the subject in itself determined the
just price, or whether it was merely the most reliable evidence of
what the just price in fact was at a particular moment.

[Footnote 1: _Irish Theological Quarterly_, vol. ix. p. 41.]

Father Kelleher draws attention to the fact that Aquinas in his
article on price did not specifically affirm that the just price
was objective, but he explains this omission by saying that the
objectivity of the price was so well and universally understood that
it was unnecessary expressly to restate it. Indeed, as we saw above,
the teaching of Aquinas on price left a great deal to be supplied by
later writers, not because he was in any doubt about the subject, but
because the theory was so well understood. 'Not even in St. Thomas can
we find a formal discussion of the moral obligation of observing an
objective equivalence in contracts of buying and selling. He simply
took it for granted, as, indeed, was inevitable, seeing that, up to
his time and for long after, all Catholic thought and legislation
proceeded on that hypothesis. But that he actually did take it for
granted, he has given many clear indications in his article on Justice
which leave us no room for reasonable doubt.'[1] As Father Kelleher
very cogently points out, the discussion in Aquinas's article on
commerce, whether it was lawful to buy cheap and sell dear, very
clearly indicates that the author maintained the objective theory,
because if the just price were simply determined by what people were
willing to give, this question could not have arisen.

[Footnote 1: _Irish Theological Quarterly_, vol. x. p. 165.]

Nor is the fact that the just price admitted of a certain elasticity
an argument in favour of its being subjective. Father Kelleher fully
admits that the common estimation was the general criterion of just
price, and, of course, the common estimation could not, of its very
nature, be rigid and immutable. Commodities should, indeed, exchange
according to their objective value, but, even so, commodities could
not carry their value stamped on their faces. Even if we assume that
the standard of exchange was the cost of production, there would still
remain room for a certain amount of difference of opinion as to what
exactly their value would be in particular instances. Suppose that the
commodity offered for sale was a suit of clothes, in estimating its
value on the basis of the cost of production, opinions might differ
as to the precise amount of time required for making it, or as to the
cost of the cloth out of which it was made. Unless recourse was to be
had to an almost interminable process of calculations, nobody could
say authoritatively what precisely the value was, and in practice the
determination of value had perforce to be left to the ordinary human
estimate of what it was, which of its very nature was bound to admit a
certain margin of fluctuation. Thus we can easily understand how, even
with an objective standard of value, the just price might be admitted
to vary within the limits of the maximum as it might be expected to
be estimated by sellers and the minimum as it would appear just to
buyers. The sort of estimation of which St. Thomas speaks is therefore
nothing else than a judgment, which, being human, is liable to be
slightly in excess or defect of the objective value about which it is
formed.'[1] As Father Kelleher puts it on a later page, 'There is a
sense certainly in which, with a solitary exception in the case of
wages, it may be said with perfect truth that the common estimation
determines the just price. That is, the common estimation is the
proximate practical criterion.'[2]

[Footnote 1: _Irish Theological Quarterly_, vol. x. p. 166.]

[Footnote 2: P. 173.]

Father Kelleher uses in support of his contention a very ingenious
argument drawn from the doctrine of usury. As we said in the first
chapter, and as we shall prove in detail in the next section, the
prohibition of usury was simply one of the applications of the theory
of equivalence in contracts--in other words, it was the determination
of the just price to be paid in an exchange of money for money. If,
asks Father Kelleher, the common estimation was the final test of just
price, why was not moderate usury allowed? That the general opinion of
the community in the Middle Ages was undoubtedly in favour of allowing
a reasonable percentage on loans is shown by the constant striving of
the Church to prevent such a practice. Nevertheless the Church did
not for a moment relax its teaching on usury in spite of the almost
universal judgment of the people. Here, therefore, is a clear example
of one contract in which the standard of value is clearly objective,
and it is only reasonable to draw the conclusion that the same
standard which applied in contracts of the exchange of money should
apply in contracts of the sale of other articles.

Father Kelleher's contention seems to be completely supported by the
passage from Nider which we have cited above, to the effect that the
common estimation ceases to be the final test of the just price when
the contracting parties know or believe that the common estimation has
erred.[1] This seems to us clearly to show that the common estimation
was but the most generally received test of what the just price
in fact was, but that it was in no sense a final or irrefutable
criterion.[2]

[Footnote 1: _De Cont. Merc._, ii. xv. Nider was regarded as a very
weighty authority on the subject of contracts (Endemann, _Studien_,
vol. ii. p. 8).]

[Footnote 2: The argument in favour of what we have called the
'objective' theory of the just price is strengthened by the
consideration that goods do not satisfy mere subjective whims, but
supply real wants. For example, food supplies a real need of the human
being, as also does clothing; in the one case hunger is appeased,
and in the other cold is warded off, just as drugs used in medical
practice produce real objective effects on the person taking them.]

The theory that the just price was objective seems to be accepted by
the majority of the best modern students of the subject. Sir William
Ashley says: 'The fundamental difference between the mediaeval and
modern point of view is... that with us value is something entirely
subjective; it is what each individual cares to give for a thing. With
Aquinas it was entirely objective; something outside the will of
the individual purchaser or seller; something attached to the thing
itself, existing whether he liked it or not, and that he ought to
recognise.'[1] Palgrave's _Dictionary of Political Economy_, following
the authority of Knies, expresses the same opinion: 'Perhaps the
contrast between mediaeval and modern ideas of value is best expressed
by saying that with us value is usually something subjective,
consisting of the mental determination of buyer and seller, while to
the schoolmen it was in a sense objective, something intrinsically
bound up with the commodity itself.'[2] Dr. Ryan agrees with this
view: 'The theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
assumed that the objective price would be fair, since it was
determined by the social estimate. In their opinion the social
estimate would embody the requirements of objective justice as fully
as any device or institution that was practically available. For the
condition of the Middle Ages and the centuries immediately following,
this reasoning was undoubtedly correct. The agencies which created
the social estimate and determined prices--namely the civil law, the
guilds, and custom--succeeded fairly in establishing a price that was
equitable to all concerned.'[3] Dr. Cleary says: 'True, the _pretium
legale_ is regarded as being a just price, but in order that it may
be just, it supposes some objective basis--in other words, it rather
declares than constitutes the just price.'[4] Haney is also strongly
of opinion that the just price was objective. 'Briefly stated, the
doctrine was that every commodity had some one true value which was
objective and absolute.'[5] The greater number of modern students
therefore who have given most care and attention to the question are
inclined to the opinion that the just price was not subjective, but
objective, and we see no valid reason for disagreeing with this view,
which seems to be fully warranted by the original authorities.

[Footnote 1: _Op. cit._, vol. i. pt. i. p. 140.]

[Footnote 2: Art. 'Justum Pretium.']

[Footnote 3: 'The Moral Aspect of Monopoly,' by J.A. Ryan, D.D.,
_Irish Theological Quarterly_, in. p. 275; and see _Distributive
Justice_, pp. 332-4.]

[Footnote 4: _Op. cit._, p. 193.]

[Footnote 5: _History of Economic Thought_, p. 75.]


Sec. 7. _The Mediaeval Attitude towards Commerce_.

Before passing from the question of price, we must discuss the
legitimacy of the various occupations which were concerned with buying
and selling. The principal matter which arises for consideration
in this regard is the attitude of the mediaeval theologians towards
commerce. Aquinas discusses the legitimacy of commerce in the same
question in which he discusses just price, and indeed the two subjects
are closely allied, because the importance of the observance of
justice in buying and selling grew urgent as commerce extended and
advanced.

In order to understand the disapprobation with which commerce was on
the whole regarded in the Middle Ages, it is necessary to appreciate
the importance of the Christian teaching on the dignity of labour. The
principle that, far from being a degrading or humiliating occupation,
as it had been regarded in Greece and Rome, manual labour was, on
the contrary, one of the most noble ways of serving God, effected
a revolution in the economic sphere analogous to that which the
Christian sanctification of marriage effected in the domestic sphere.
The Christian teaching on labour was grounded on the Divine precepts
contained in both the Old and New Testaments,[1] and upon the example
of Christ, who was Himself a working man. The Gospel was preached
amongst the poor, and St. Paul continued his humble labours during
his apostolate.[2] A life of idleness was considered something to be
avoided, instead of something to be desired, as it had been in the
ancient civilisations. Gerson says it is against the nature of man to
wish to live without labour as usurers do,[3] and Langenstein
inveighs against usurers and all who live without work.[4] 'We read
in Sebastian Brant that the idlers are the most foolish amongst fools,
they are to every people like smoke to the eyes or vinegar to
the teeth. Only by labour is God truly praised and honoured; and
Trithemius says "Man is born to labour as the bird to fly, and hence
it is contrary to the nature of man when he thinks to live without
work."'[5] The example of the monasteries, where the performance
of all sorts of manual labour was not thought inconsistent with the
administration of the sacred offices and the pursuit of the highest
intellectual exercises, acted as a powerful assertion to the laity
of the dignity of labour in the scheme of things.[6] The value of the
monastic example in this respect cannot be too highly estimated. 'When
we consider the results of the founding of monasteries,' says Dr.
Cunningham, 'we find influences at work that were plainly economic.
These communities can be best understood when we think of them as
Christian industrial colonies, and remember that they moulded society
rather by example than by precept. We are so familiar with the attacks
and satires on monastic life that were current at the Reformation
period, that it may seem almost a paradox to say that the chief
claim of the monks to our gratitude lies in this, that they helped to
diffuse a better appreciation of the duty and dignity of labour.'[7]

[Footnote 1: Gen. iii. 19; Ps. cxxvii. 2; 2 Thess. iii. 10. The
last-mentioned text is explained, in opposition to certain Socialist
interpretations which have been put on it, by Dr. Hogan in the _Irish
Ecclesiastical Record_, vol. xxv. p. 45.]

[Footnote 2: Wallon, _op. cit._, vol. iii. p. 401.]

[Footnote 3: _De Cont._, i. 13.]

[Footnote 4: _De Cont._]

[Footnote 5: Janssen, _op. cit._, vol. ii. pp. 93-4.]

[Footnote 6: Levasseur, _Histoire des Classes ouvrieres en France_,
vol. i. pp. 182 _et seq_.]

[Footnote 7: _Western Civilisation_, vol. ii. p. 35.]

The result of this teaching and example was that, in the Middle Ages,
labour had been raised to a position of unquestioned dignity. The
economic benefit of this attitude towards labour must be obvious. It
made the working classes take a direct pride and interest in their
work, which was represented to be a means of sanctification. 'Labour,'
according to Dr. Cunningham, 'was said to be pregnant with a double
advantage--the privilege of sharing with God in His work of carrying
out His purpose, and the opportunity of self-discipline and the
helping of one's fellow-men.'[1] 'Industrial work,' says Levasseur,
'in the times of antiquity had always had, in spite of the
institutions of certain Emperors, a degrading character, because it
had its roots in slavery; after the invasion, the grossness of the
barbarians and the levelling of towns did not help to rehabilitate it.
It was the Church which, in proclaiming that Christ was the son of
a carpenter, and the Apostles were simple workmen, made known to the
world that work is honourable as well as necessary. The monks proved
this by their example, and thus helped to give to the working classes
a certain consideration which ancient society had denied them. Manual
labour became a source of sanctification.'[2] The high esteem in which
labour was held appears from the whole artistic output of the Middle
Ages. 'Many of the simple artists of the time represented the saints
holding some instrument of work or engaged in some industrial pursuit;
as, for instance, the Blessed Virgin spinning as she sat by the cradle
of the divine Infant, and St. Joseph using a saw or carpenter's tools.
"Since the Saints," says the _Christian Monitor_, "have laboured, so
shall the Christian learn that by honourable labour he can glorify
God, do good, and save his own soul."'[3] Work was, alongside of
prayer and inseparable from it, the perfection of Christian life.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Christianity and Economic Science_, pp. 26-7.]

[Footnote 2: _Op. cit._, vol. i. p. 187.]

[Footnote 3: Janssen, _op. cit._, vol. ii. p. 9.]

[Footnote 4: Wallon, _op. cit._, vol. i. p. 410.]

It must not be supposed, however, that manual labour alone was thought
worthy of praise. On the contrary, the necessity for mental and
spiritual workers was fully appreciated, and all kinds of labour
were thought equally worthy of honour. 'Heavy labourer's work is the
inevitable yoke of punishment, which, according to God's righteous
verdict, has been laid upon all the sons of Adam. But many of Adam's
descendants seek in all sorts of cunning ways to escape from the yoke
and to live in idleness without labour, and at the same time to have
a superfluity of useful and necessary things; some by robbery and
plunder, some by usurious dealings, others by lying, deceit, and all
the countless, forms of dishonest and fraudulent gain, by which men
are for ever seeking to get riches and abundance without toil. But
while such men are striving to throw off the yoke righteously imposed
on them by God, they are heaping on their shoulders a heavy burden
of sin. Not so, however, do the reasonable sons of Adam proceed; but,
recognising in sorrow that for the sins of their first father God has
righteously ordained that only through the toil of labour shall they
obtain what is necessary to life, they take the yoke patiently on
them.... Some of them, like the peasants, the handicraftsmen, and the
tradespeople, procure for themselves and others, in the sweat of their
brows and by physical work, the necessary sustenance of life. Others,
who labour in more honourable ways, earn the right to be maintained by
the sweat of others' brows--for instance, those who stand at the head
of the commonwealth; for by their laborious exertion the former are
enabled to enjoy the peace, the security, without which they could not
exist. The same holds good of those who have the charge of spiritual
matters....'[1] 'Because,' says Aquinas, 'many things are necessary to
human life, with which one man cannot provide himself, it is necessary
that different things should be done by different people; therefore
some are tillers of the soil, some are raisers of cattle, some are
builders, and so on; and, because human life does not simply mean
corporal things, but still more spiritual things, therefore it
is necessary that some people should be released from the care of
attending to temporal matters. This distribution of different offices
amongst different people is in accordance with Divine providence.'[2]

[Footnote 1: Langenstein, quoted in Janssen, _op. cit._, p. 95.]

[Footnote 2: _Summa Cont. Gent_., iii. 134.]

All forms of labour being therefore admitted to be honourable and
necessary, there was no difficulty felt about justifying their reward.
It was always common ground that services of all kinds were entitled
to be properly remunerated, and questions of difficulty only arose
when a claim was made for payment in a transaction where the element
of service was not apparent.[1] The different occupations in which men
were engaged were therefore ranked in a well-recognised hierarchy
of dignity according to the estimate to which they were held to
be entitled. The Aristotelean division of industry into _artes
possessivae_ and _artes pecuniativae_ was generally followed, the
former being ranked higher than the latter. 'The industries called
_possessivae_, which are immediately useful to the individual, to the
family, and to society, producing natural wealth, are also the most
natural as well as the most estimable. But all the others should not
be despised. The natural arts are the true economic arts, but the arts
which produce artificial riches are also estimable in so far as they
serve the true national economy; the commutation of the exchanges and
the _cambium_ being necessary to the general good, are good in so far
as they are subordinate to the end of true economy. One may say the
same thing about commerce. In order, then, to estimate the value of an
industrial art, one must examine its relation to the general good.'[2]
Even the _artes possessivae_ were not all considered equally worthy of
praise, but were ranked in a curious order of professional hierarchy.
Agriculture was considered the highest, next manufacture, and lastly
commerce. Roscher says that, whereas all the scholastics were agreed
on the excellence of agriculture as an occupation, the best they could
say of manufacture was _Deo non displicet_, whereas of commerce they
said _Deo placere non potest_; and draws attention to the interesting
consequence of this, namely, that the various classes of goods that
took part in the different occupations were also ranked in a certain
order of sacredness. Immovables were thought more worthy of protection
against execution and distress than movables, and movables than
money.[3] Aquinas advises the rulers of States to encourage the _artes
possessivae_, especially agriculture.[4] The fullest analysis of the
order in which the different _artes possessivae_ should be ranked is
to be found in Buridan's _Commentaries on Aristotle's Politics_. He
places first agriculture, which comprises cattle-breeding, tillage,
and hunting; secondly, manufacture, which helps to supply man's
corporal needs, such as building and architecture; thirdly,
administrative occupations; and lastly, commerce. The Christian
Exhortation, quoted by Janssen,[5] says, 'The farmer must in all
things be protected and encouraged, for all depend on his labour,
from the monarch to the humblest of mankind, and his handiwork is in
particular honourable and well pleasing to God.'

[Footnote 1: Aquinas, _Summa_, II. ii. 77, 4; Nider, _op. cit._, II.
x.]

[Footnote 2: Brants, _op. cit._, p. 82.]

[Footnote 3: _Geschichte_, p. 7.]

[Footnote 4: _De Regimine Principum_, vol. ii. chaps, v. and vi.]

[Footnote 5: _Op. cit._, vol. i. p. 297.]

The division of occupations according to their dignity adopted by
Nicholas Oresme is somewhat unusual. He divides professions into (1)
honourable, or those which increase the actual quantity of goods in
the community or help its development, such as ecclesiastical offices,
the law, the soldiery, the peasantry, artisans, and merchants, and
(2) degrading--such as _campsores, mercatores monetae sen
billonatores.'_[1]

No occupation, therefore, which involved labour, whether manual
or mental, gave any ground for difficulty with regard to its
remuneration. The business of the trader or merchant, on the other
hand, was one which called for some explanation. It is important
to understand what commerce was taken to mean. The definition which
Aquinas gives was accepted by all later writers: 'A tradesman is one
whose business consists in the exchange of things. According to the
philosopher, exchange of things is twofold; one natural, as it were,
and necessary, whereby one commodity is exchanged for another, or
money taken in exchange for a commodity in order to satisfy the needs
of life. Such trading, properly speaking, does not belong to traders,
but rather to housekeepers or civil servants, who have to provide the
household or the State with the necessaries of life. The other kind
of exchange is either that of money for money, or of any commodity for
money, not on account of the necessities of life, but for profit; and
this kind of trade, properly speaking, regards traders.' It is to
be remarked in this definition, that it is essential, to constitute
trade, that the exchange or sale should be for the sake of profit,
and this point is further emphasised in a later passage of the same
article: 'Not every one that sells at a higher price than he bought
is a trader, but only he who buys that he may sell at a profit. If,
on the contrary, he buys, not for sale, but for possession, and
afterwards for some reason wishes to sell, it is not a trade
transaction, even if he sell at a profit. For he may lawfully do this,
either because he has bettered the thing, or because the value of the
thing has changed with the change of place or time, or on account
of the danger he incurs in transferring the thing from one place to
another, or again in having it carried by hand. In this sense neither
buying nor selling is unjust.'[2] The importance of this definition
is that it rules out of the discussion all cases where the goods have
been in any way improved or rendered more valuable by the services
of the seller. Such improvement was always reckoned as the result of
labour of one kind or another, and therefore entitled to remuneration.
The essence of trade in the scholastic sense was selling the thing
unchanged at a higher price than that at which it had been bought, for
the sake of gain.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Tractatus de Origine, etc., Monetarum_.]

[Footnote 2: _Tractatus de Origine, etc., Monetarum_, ad. 2.]

[Footnote 3: 'Fit autem mercatio cum non ut emptor ea utatur sed ut
earn carius vendat etiam non mutatam suo artificio; illa mercatio
dicitur proprie negotiatio' (Biel, _op. cit._, IV. xv. 10.)]

The legitimacy of trade in this sense was only gradually admitted. The
Fathers of the Church had with one voice condemned trade as being an
occupation fraught with danger to the soul. Tertullian argued that
there would be no need of trade if there were no desire for gain, and
that there would be no desire for gain if man were not avaricious.
Therefore avarice was the necessary basis of all trade.[1] St. Jerome
thought that one man's gain in trading must always be another's loss;
and that, in any event, trade was a dangerous occupation since it
offered so many temptations to fraud to the merchant.[2] St. Augustine
proclaimed all trade evil because it turns men's minds away from
seeking true rest, which is only to be found in God, and this opinion
was embodied in the _Corpus Juris Canonici_.[3] This early view that
all trade was to be indiscriminately condemned could not in the nature
of things survive experience, and a great step forward was taken
when Leo the Great pronounced that trade was neither good nor bad in
itself, but was rendered good or bad according as it was honestly or
dishonestly carried on.[4]

[Footnote 1: _De Idol_., xi.]

[Footnote 2: Ashley, _op. cit._, vol. i. pt. i. p. 129.]

[Footnote 3: See _Corpus Juris Canonici_, Deer. I.D. 88 c. 12.]

[Footnote 4: _Epist. ad Rusticum_, c. ix.]

The scholastics, in addition to condemning commerce on the authority
of the patristic texts, condemned it also on the Aristotelean ground
that it was a chrematistic art, and this consideration, as we have
seen above, enters into Aquinas's article on the subject.[1]

[Footnote 1: Rambaud, _op. cit._, p. 52.]

The extension of commercial life which took place about the beginning
of the thirteenth century, raised acute controversies about the
legitimacy of commerce. Probably nothing did more to broaden the
teaching on this subject than the necessity of justifying trade which
became more and more insistent after the Crusades.[1]

[Footnote 1: On the economic influence of the Crusades the following
works may be consulted: Blanqui, _Histoire de l'Economie politique_;
Heeren, _Essai sur l'Influence politique et sociale des Croisades_;
Scherer, _Histoire du Commerce_; Prutz, _Culturgeschichte der
Kreuzzuege_; Pigonneau, _Histoire du Commerce de la France_; List, _Die
Lehren der Handelspolitischen Geschichte_.]

By the time of Aquinas the necessity of commerce had come to be fully
realised, as appears from the passage in the _De Regimine Principum_:
'There are two ways in which it is possible to increase the affluence
of any State. One, which is the more worthy way, is on account of the
fertility of the country producing an abundance of all things which
are necessary for human life, the other is through the employment
of commerce, through which the necessaries of life are brought from
different places. The former method can be clearly shown to be the
more desirable.... It is more admirable that a State should possess an
abundance of riches from its own soil than through commerce. For the
State which needs a number of merchants to maintain its subsistence
is liable to be injured in war through a shortage of food if
communications are in any way impeded. Moreover, the influx of
strangers corrupts the morals of many of the citizens... whereas,
if the citizens themselves devote themselves to commerce, a door is
opened to many vices. For when the desire of merchants is inclined
greatly to gain, cupidity is aroused in the hearts of many
citizens.... For the pursuit of a merchant is as contrary as possible
to military exertion. For merchants abstain from labours, and while
they enjoy the good things of life, they become soft in mind and their
bodies are rendered weak and unsuitable for military exercises....
It therefore behoves the perfect State to make a moderate use of
commerce.'[1]

[Footnote 1: ii. 3.]

Aquinas, who, as we have seen, recognised the necessity of commerce,
did not condemn all trade indiscriminately, as the Fathers had done,
but made the motive with which commerce was carried on the test of its