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Medieval Economic Thought Diana Wood
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This book is an introduction
to medieval economic thought, mainly from the twelfth to the fifteenth
centuries, as it emerges from the works of academic theologians and lawyers,
and other sources from Italian merchants' writings to vernacular poetry,
parliamentary legislation, and manorial court rolls. It raises a number of
questions based on the Aristotelian idea of the mean, the balance and harmony
underlying justice, as applied by medieval thinkers to the changing economy,
and it attempts to relate theory to practice. |
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How could private
ownership of property be reconciled with God's gift of the earth to all in
common? How could charity
balance resources between rich and poor? What was money, and how did it equalize the
interests of buyer and seller? Did control of the standards of weights, measures,
and coinage belong to the ruler or the people, or to both? Could the 'balance of
trade' be applied to the medieval economy? What were the just price and the just wage? How was
a balance to be achieved between lender and borrower, and how did the idea of usury
change to reflect this? The answers emerge from a wide variety of ecclesiastical and secular sources. Diana Wood is Senior Research
Fellow in History, Tutor in Local History,
Oxford University Department fro Continuing Education. Her publications
include Clement VI: the Pontificate and Ideas of an Avignon
Pope ( |
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