IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/halshs-03658417.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

At the Boundaries of the Trading Sphere: The Appearance of the 'Just Price' in Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre Januard

    (PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Abstract

The term 'just price' appears only twice in the Commentary on the Sentences, the most important of Thomas Aquinas's early works. Yet these little known and seemingly incidental appearances, related to a non-tradable good and a semi-tradable good, are in fact fundamental and decisive: they offer a new way of understanding the Thomasian just price as an analogy of justice; they highlight the role of price in reducing the risk of lack of information about the justice of exchange; they allow the market to be delimited; and they indicate how, through paying particular attention to the goods, Aquinas implements an objective approach that reduces the subjective risk concerning the agents and their hidden intentions.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Januard, 2022. "At the Boundaries of the Trading Sphere: The Appearance of the 'Just Price' in Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences," Working Papers halshs-03658417, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03658417
    DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14917.73446
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03658417
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03658417/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.13140/RG.2.2.14917.73446?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fabio Monsalve, 2014. "Scholastic just price versus current market price: is it merely a matter of labelling?," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 4-20, February.
    2. Élodie Bertrand & Nathalie Sigot, 2014. "L'intégration des règles et normes en économie. Une histoire officielle en question," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 65(2), pages 215-224.
    3. Alvin E. Roth, 2007. "Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 37-58, Summer.
    4. Richard Sturn, 2017. "Agency, exchange, and power in scholastic thought," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 640-669, July.
    5. Jean Dellemotte, 2017. "Histoire des idées économiques," Post-Print hal-03473026, HAL.
    6. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risky exchanges: price and justice in Thomas Aquinas’s De emptione et venditione ad tempus," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 729-769, July.
    7. Koehn, Daryl & Wilbratte, Barry, 2012. "A Defense of a Thomistic Concept of the Just Price," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 501-526, July.
    8. Irina Chaplygina & André Lapidus, 2016. "Economic thought in scholasticism," Chapters, in: Gilbert Faccarello & Heinz D. Kurz (ed.), Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis Volume II, chapter 3, pages 20-42, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Élodie Bertrand, 2006. "La thèse d'efficience du « théorème de Coase ». Quelle critique de la microéconomie ?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(5), pages 983-1007.
    10. Paolo Santori, 2019. "Was Aquinas a ‘Universal Economist’?," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(1), pages 79-91, January.
    11. Paolo Santori, 2020. "Donum, exchange and common good in Aquinas: the dawn of civil economy," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 276-297, March.
    12. de Roover, Raymond, 1958. "The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 418-434, December.
    13. Domar, Evsey D., 1970. "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 18-32, March.
    14. Sylvie Lupton, 2015. "Quality Uncertainty in Early Economic Thought," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 47(3), pages 511-534, September.
    15. André Lapidus, 1994. "Norm, Virtue and Information: Individual Behaviour and the Just Price in Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologica," Post-Print hal-00344928, HAL.
    16. André Lapidus, 1997. "Metal, Money, and the Prince: John Buridan and Nicholas Oresme after Thomas Aquinas," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 21-53, Spring.
    17. Oscar De-Juan & Fabio Monsalve, 2006. "Morally ruled behaviour: The neglected contribution of Scholasticism," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 99-112.
    18. Monsalve, Fabio, 2014. "Late Spanish Doctors On Usury, And The Evolving Scholastic Tradition," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 215-235, June.
    19. Satz, Debra, 2010. "Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195311594, Decembrie.
    20. Langholm,Odd, 1998. "The Legacy of Scholasticism in Economic Thought," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521621595, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Licit and illicit risks in Thomas Aquinas's De emptione et venditione ad tempus [Risques licites et illicites dans le De emptione et venditione ad tempus de Thomas d'Aquin]," Working Papers halshs-03559035, HAL.
    2. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Licit and illicit risks in Thomas Aquinas's De emptione et venditione ad tempus [Risques licites et illicites dans le De emptione et venditione ad tempus de Thomas d'Aquin]," Post-Print halshs-03559035, HAL.
    3. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risky exchanges: price and justice in Thomas Aquinas’s De emptione et venditione ad tempus," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 729-769, July.
    4. Januard, Pierre, 2024. "Probability, Prudence, Danger: Thomas Aquinas On The Building Of The Lexicon Of Risk," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 421-442, September.
    5. Pierre Januard, 2022. "Risks on Trade: The Activity of the Merchant in Thomas Aquinas's Commentary on the Sentences," Working Papers halshs-03313255, HAL.
    6. Januard, Pierre, 2024. "Probability, prudence, danger: Thomas Aquinas on the building of the lexicon of risk," SocArXiv n7j9t_v1, Center for Open Science.
    7. Pierre Januard, 2021. "Analysis risk and commercial risk: the first treatment of usury in Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the Sentences," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 599-634, July.
    8. André Lapidus & Pierre Januard, 2024. "Usury and simony Trading for no price: Thomas Aquinas on money loans, sacraments and exchange - Chapter 7," Post-Print hal-04396111, HAL.
    9. S. Drakopoulos & G.N. Gotsis, 2004. "A Meta-theoretical Assessment of the Decline of Scholastic Economics," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(1), pages 19-45, January.
    10. Piotr Dworczak & Scott Duke Kominers & Mohammad Akbarpour, 2021. "Redistribution Through Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1665-1698, July.
    11. Juan Elegido, 2015. "The Just Price as the Price Obtainable in an Open Market," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 557-572, September.
    12. Akyel, Dominic, 2014. "Ökonomisierung und moralischer Wandel: Die Ausweitung von Marktbeziehungen als Prozess der moralischen Bewertung von Gütern," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/13, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    13. Timothy C. Johnson, 2013. "Reciprocity as the foundation of Financial Economics," Papers 1310.2798, arXiv.org.
    14. William A. Jackson, 2024. "The Ethics of Price Variation," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 201-215, April.
    15. Timothy C. Johnson, 2012. "Ethics and Finance: the role of mathematics," Papers 1210.5390, arXiv.org.
    16. Viola S. Ackfeld, 2020. "The Aversion to Monetary Incentives for Changing Behavior," Working Paper Series in Economics 100, University of Cologne, Department of Economics.
    17. Marina Della Giusta & Maria Laura Di Tommaso & Sarah Jewell & Francesca Bettio, 2021. "Quashing demand or changing clients? Evidence of criminalization of sex work in the United Kingdom," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(2), pages 527-544, October.
    18. Marie Daou & Alain Marciano, 2022. "Commodification: The traditional pro-market arguments," Post-Print hal-03876907, HAL.
    19. André Lapidus, 2023. "Hugo Grotius on Usury," Post-Print hal-03989450, HAL.
    20. Sandro Ambuehl & Muriel Niederle & Alvin E. Roth, 2015. "More Money, More Problems? Can High Pay Be Coercive and Repugnant?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 357-360, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Thomas Aquinas; Scholastics; just price; risk;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03658417. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.