Sourcebook in Late-scholastic Monetary Theory: The Contributions of Martin De Azpilcueta, Luis De Molina, and Juan De Mariana (Studies in Ethics and Economics) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0739117491 ISBN 13: 9780739117491

Publisher: Lexington Books, 2007

Synopsis

The Sourcebook in Late-Scholastic Monetary Theory is a thematically unified collection of seminal texts in the history of economics on the topic of money and exchange relations (cambium)-its nature, purpose, value, and relationship to justice and morality in financial transactions-within the tradition of late-scholastic commercial ethics. Cambium embraces the development of banking practices and institutions in early modern Europe and, therefore, is much broader in scope than the simple practice of exchanging currency. Here, for the first time, the unabridged texts of Martin de Azpilcueta's Commentary on the Resolution of Money (1556), Luis de Molina's A Treatise on Money (1597), and Juan de Mariana's Treatise on the Alteration of Money (1609) are available in English translation with scholarly annotations. The publication of these foundational texts under a single cover will stimulate exploration of the continuities and discontinuities, agreements and disagreements, innovations and ruptures within the Salamancan tradition of commercial ethics during the latter half of the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century. A close reading shows that the Salamancans were involved not only in an internal conversation within Spain concerning inflation, usury, rates of currency exchange, currency debasement, subjective value, just prices, and so on, but also that they were critical intermediaries in a wider conversation spanning centuries that includes prominent canonists, jurists, philosophers, and theologians. The Salamancans also serve as conduits of scholastic economic reflection to Adam Smith and the political economists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The texts (in conjunction with the introductions by leading authorities) demonstrate the sophistication with which the Spanish doctors examined the new process of using bills of exchange (cambium per litteras) to replace the cumbersome and dangerous transportation of metallic coins between commercial fairs, which led not on

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Product Description:

Sourcebook in Late-scholastic Monetary Theory The Sourcebook is a thematically unified collection of seminal texts in the history of economics on the topic of money and exchange relations (cambium)-its nature, purpose, value, and relationship to justice and morality in financial transactions-within the tradition of late-scholastic commercial ethics.

Review:

Scholars are indebted to Stephen Grabill for rescuing the works of these important Late Scholastics from undeserved obscurity. This collection is valuable not only because it fills a crucial gap in our understanding of the history of economic thought, but also because these are works of great insight in and of themselves.--Thomas Woods, author of The Church and the Market

This collection of texts in monetary theory will of course be extremely valuable to scholars of the history of economic thought, who will want to explore the place of these late-scholastic Spaniards in the emergence of modern economics. But this collection should also attract readers who are looking for interesting alternatives to the sterile positivism that constrains and diminishes so much of present-day economic thought. They will surely find such alternatives here, among writers who knew that what we believe about economics is ultimately a reflection of what we believe about human beings, and about the nature of the world they inhabit.--Wilfred M. McClay, University of Oklahoma

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0739117491
• ISBN 13: 9780739117491
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 398
• Editor: Grabill Stephen J.