Introduction
The history of economic doctrines is one of the components of economic knowledge in general. Without studying the economic views of mankind in various historical epochs, taking into account their specifics, it is impossible to truly comprehend the essence of economic phenomena. This article is devoted to the history of economic thought in the Middle Ages.
It should be noted that without studying economic thought in the Middle Ages, it is not possible to build a coherent chain of the genesis of economic knowledge, since the Middle Ages is an integral period in the history of human society, chronologically lasting about a thousand years. In this article, we will focus on the history of the development of economic doctrines during the Middle Ages in Western Europe, since it was in Europe that the later rapid development of economic thought took place in the era of the New Age, and therefore it seems very interesting to trace how such thought was born in earlier times. - that is, in the Middle Ages.
General characteristics of the Middle Ages as a historical period The Middle Ages is a period of history, which in traditional historiography takes its countdown according to traditional ideas, begins with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 - an event that personifies the collapse of ancient civilization. As for the upper time limit of the Middle Ages, in this respect historians cannot reach a final agreement, linking it with such events as the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the discovery by Europeans of America and the sea route to India in the 1490s, the beginning of religious reformation in Europe in the 1520s, the Dutch bourgeois revolution of 1566-1609, the English bourgeois revolution of 1640-1660.
One way or another, but the era we are considering lasted for quite a long time and, of course, for such a long period, both science in general and economic teachings in particular did not remain unchanged. Economic thought in the Middle Ages developed in accordance with changes in real life, as social and economic relations developed. Therefore, the economic views of the early Middle Ages differed significantly from the ideas of the developed Middle Ages. At the same time, one should not forget that social and economic relations in the Middle Ages developed at a very slow pace, and, accordingly, economic science changed relatively slowly.
Features of the Middle Ages
In order to better understand the specifics of the economic thought of the Middle Ages, we should turn to the characteristic features of this era as a whole. One of these features - the relatively slow development, we have already noted earlier.
In the Middle Ages, a special type of worldview of a medieval person developed, which was caused by the specifics of the then life in its various manifestations - social, political, economic, ideological, cultural. The specificity of the medieval worldview influenced the formation of various aspects of science and culture, including economic ideas.
The most important feature of the European Middle Ages, and, perhaps, of all this era on a global scale, is the dominance of the religious worldview, which was observed in various spheres of human life. When characterizing medieval society, expressions such as “the people of believers” are often used. This specificity of the Middle Ages was manifested both in the political structure of society - the significant influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the dominance of religious ideology in the scientific and cultural sphere. Any science was regarded as a "servant of theology", including economic thought.2 It must be clearly understood that economics in medieval Europe did not exist independently, but as part of theology. That is why, in fact, the only thinkers who considered economic ideas were representatives of the church. Economic thought developed within the framework of scholasticism - a specific religious philosophy that combined religious dogma with the rudiments of a rationalistic scientific approach3.
The European Middle Ages was largely formed "on the ruins" of Antiquity, because of this we can find a significant ancient influence in this era. Of course, on the one hand, Antiquity, Ancient Greece and Rome were considered by Christians as ideologically hostile "pagan", but on the other hand, the language of science was Latin - the language of the lost Ancient Rome, and outstanding ancient scientists, primarily Aristotle, remained an indisputable authority for medieval scholastics, at least in the part that did not directly contradict religious dogmas.
1 Blok M. Feudal society / Per. from fr. M. Yu. Kozhevnikova, E. M. Lysenko. - M.: Publishing house im. Sabashnikov, 2003. - P. 145.
2 Yadgarov Ya.S. History of Economic Thought. 4th ed., revised. and additional - M.: M, 2009. - S. 13.
3 History of economic doctrines: textbook / GD Gloveli. - M.: Yurayt Publishing House; ID Yurayt, 2011. - S. 57.
The basis of economic life in the Middle Ages was the feudal economic system. Feudalism was characterized by private ownership of land and the dominance of large landownership. The main means of production - land - was frequently owned by monarchs, large feudal lords, and the Catholic Church. Small feudal lords acted as conditional holders of land plots from larger ones. The vast majority of the population was deprived of land ownership and constituted the estate of serfs, dependent on the feudal lords and forced to work on their land. Rigid class division of society is another important feature of the Middle Ages. At the same time, cities and the urban population stood somewhat apart in the feudal hierarchy. Since subsistence farming prevailed in the Middle Ages, most of the product was produced for personal consumption, and not for sale. Because of this, trade in the Middle Ages was relatively poorly developed.
Economic doctrines of the early Middle Ages
With these features in mind, we can now trace the development of economic thought in the Middle Ages in Western Europe.
In the early Middle Ages, economic doctrines were very limited within the framework of strict religious dogma. This period of development of scientific thought in Europe taught the name of patristics. Patristics (from Latin pater - father) is commonly called the teachings of the so-called "Church Fathers" - the ideological leaders of the Christian faith at an early stage of its development, in the so-called. "post-apostolic times", i.e. starting from the 2nd century AD.
Among the representatives of patristics, one can distinguish such theologians as: Tertullian (160 - 220), Origen (c. 185 - 253/254), Cyprian of Carthage (after 200 - 258), Athanasius the Great (295 - 373), Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen) (329/330 - 390), Basil the Great (c. 330 - 379), Ambrose of Milan (333/334 - 397), Augustine the Blessed (354 - 430) and others.
The main specific feature of patristics as a doctrine is that the “Holy Scripture” was recognized as the highest authority, i.e. The Bible, to which thinkers turned to confirm the correctness of their statements. The Bible was regarded as a source of true knowledge, allegedly transmitted to man by God. Because of this, in order to get answers to any questions, including those of an economic nature, it is necessary to turn to the Bible, and at the same time to most clearly and fully understand the meaning of the text of the Bible.
In the writings of the "fathers of the church" were condemned as "sinful" trading profits and usurious interest, which were seen as the unrighteous results of the appropriation of someone else's labor. The early ideologists of Christianity also opposed the contemptuous attitude towards physical labor characteristic of ancient thinkers, condemned the material wealth and well-being of the few to the detriment of the majority of the population. Because of this, large-scale trade for the purpose of making a profit, lending and banking operations, as "sinful" phenomena, were officially prohibited by the Catholic Church.
Economic thought of the developed Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas
With the development of socio-economic relations, with the growth of labor productivity, with the development of trade relations, both within individual countries and at the international level, it became clear that the strict dogmatic ideas of early Christianity could not correspond to real life, hindering the development of trade and economic relations. Under these conditions, the scholastics of the developed Middle Ages were forced to seek a compromise between biblical dogmas and the urgent demands of life. The most prominent representative of such a "compromise" trend in medieval economics is the scholastic Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
The main work of Thomas Aquinas is the voluminous and multi-volume Summa Theology. In this work, among other things, his economic ideas are traced, which, taking into account the authority and influence of Aquinas in medieval Europe, we can to a certain extent consider as the quintessence of the economic thought of the developed European Middle Ages.
In his economic ideas, Aquinas, as in many other things, relied on the ancient heritage, primarily on the works of Aristotle, and at the same time tried to combine the thoughts of Aristotle with the religious dogmas of Christianity. The economic views of Aquinas are contained mainly in the eighth volume of The Sum of Theology.
Aquinas, in contrast to the representatives of early Christianity, substantiates the idea that private property may well be combined with Christian morality. He argues that private property, if it is aimed at satisfying the natural needs of a person (food, clothing, housing, etc.), and not at uncontrolled enrichment for the sake of enrichment, is not at all sinful.
Considering the processes of economic exchange, Aquinas introduces the concept of "fair price" - a category that in a certain way replaced the modern concept of "market price". According to Aquinas, "a fair price" can be a source of growth in private property and the creation of "moderate" wealth, which he does not consider as a sin. Aquinas recognizes that the seller has the right to sell a thing for more than it is worth in itself: “if the seller sold his goods for more than their value or the buyer bought them for less than their value without any fraud on his part, then the law interprets the transaction as legal and does not provide for any punishment for this.”4
Arguing about the possibility of making a profit when concluding transactions, Aquinas says the following: “There are two ways to talk about buying and selling. First, about as such, and from this point of view, the sale seems to exist for the benefit of both parties, one of which, as the Philosopher says, needs what the other has, and vice versa. But what exists for the common good should not be more burdensome for one side than for the other, and therefore all agreements concluded between them must observe equality between [exchanged] things. In addition, the measure of the value of a thing used by people is its value, for which, as it is said in the fifth book of Ethics5, money was invented»6
Money, therefore, according to Aquinas, is “the surest measure” in “trade and turnover. In accordance with the nominalist concept of money, Aquinas believes that although money has its "intrinsic value", it is possible to allow some deviation in the value of a coin from its "intrinsic value": "if a person sees that a purchase will bring him great benefit, he can on his own the will to pay the seller more than the price and thereby demonstrate their honesty.”7
Although, in general, Aquinas considers trade as an inherently negative phenomenon, since he proceeds from the postulate that there supposedly is a constant amount of “total wealth” in the world. Therefore, the excessive accumulation of material values in the hands of one person inevitably leads to the impoverishment of others, since there is simply nowhere to come from additional wealth. However, trade can still be justified on the grounds that it can benefit society as a whole8. Merchants, facilitating the exchange between countries and peoples, thereby benefit people, allowing them to use the benefits that were originally removed from them: are invariably associated with the risk of damage from natural disasters, attacks by robbers and pirates, etc.: “a person ... can trade for the sake of achieving some public good, for example, so that his country does not lack vital things, and he is not interested in profit as a goal, but as a payment for his labors.”9
Allowing the possibility of barter, profit, trade, Aquinas, at the same time, retains an extremely negative attitude towards usury, characteristic of the early Middle Ages10. In his opinion, any form of usury, both in money and in kind, is unacceptable: “just as taking money by tacit or expressed consent for the provision of money or any other consumable thing is a sin contrary to justice, exactly the same sin is to receive, by tacit or express consent, for this something of what can be measured in money.
Based on the concept of Aristotle, according to which money is only a measure of value, Aquinas comes to the conclusion about the sinfulness of any loans at interest: "to take money by tacit or express consent for the provision of money or any other consumable thing is a sin contrary to justice"11. In his opinion, the transfer of an object by one person to another informs the latter of the very ownership of the thing, albeit temporarily in the case of a loan agreement for a particular thing. Receiving additional remuneration for the temporary use of a sum of money is considered as a double sale of the same thing.
4 Aquinas F. The sum of theology. Volume VIII. Question 77. -
5 This refers to the work of Aristotle.
6 Aquinas F. Sum of Theology. Volume VIII. Question 77. -
http://librebook.me/summa_theologica/vol33/32 7 Aquinas F. The sum of theology. Volume VIII. Question 77. -http://librebook.me/summa_theologica/vol33/32 8 Yadgarov Ya.S. History of Economic Thought. 4th ed., revised. and additional - M.: M, 2009. - S. 14-15.9 Aquinas F. The sum of theology. Volume VIII. Question 77. -
http://librebook.me/summa_theologica/vol33/3210 History of economic doctrines: textbook / GD Gloveli. - M.: Yurayt Publishing House; ID Yurayt, 2011. - S. 60.
Conclusion
Thus, summing up, we can conclude that the development of economic thought in the Middle Ages in Western Europe took place along the path of a gradual departure from the strict ideological dogmas of early Christianity.
As economic relations developed, the medieval scholastics, being generally within the framework of the theological doctrine, were forced to look for compromise solutions. We see that the teachings of Thomas Aquinas recognize as permissible such phenomena of economic life as private property, trade, profit, personal enrichment, albeit within limited limits. Recall that in the writings of the early "fathers of the church" these phenomena were condemned almost unconditionally.
In other aspects (such as the attitude towards usury), the economic thought of the developed Middle Ages continues to be just as irreconcilable.
In general, we can conclude that in the depths of medieval European society, a new era was gradually maturing - the Renaissance. Let the slow but steady increase in labor productivity, the development of trade and economic relations, the gradual growth of the welfare of society undermined the dominance of religious ideology and demanded the liberation of scientific thought (including economic thought) from the narrow framework of scholastic theology.
It should be noted that today it is very difficult for us to unambiguously evaluate the economic views of the thinkers of that distant era. On the one hand, they may seem primitive to us, driven into the narrow framework of theological concepts, but, on the other hand, it is rather difficult for modern man to actually imagine the environmental conditions in which the man of medieval Europe was and under the influence of which his economic views were formed. Therefore, only taking into account the specifics of medieval life can we give an objective assessment of the economic teachings of that time.
Do not forget that just as the Middle Ages itself is an integral stage of human history, it is also impossible to fully study the genesis of modern economic science without the economic teachings of this era. It should be noted that medieval scientists revealed or clarified the content of many economic concepts, developed the logic of scientific understanding of economic processes, albeit within the framework of scholastic methodology. However, in general, economic thinking in the Middle Ages remained under the control of religious norms.
Attempts by economic thought to adapt to new conditions, but at the same time remain within a tight religious framework, could achieve only temporary success. The further development of the economy, the development of new trade routes that began in the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries and other phenomena of changing life required a significant revision of the ideas of economic science, which happened in the next historical era - New Time.
11 Aquinas F. The sum of theology. Volume VIII. Question 78.-http://librebook.me/summa_theologica/vol33/32
Bibliography
1. Aquinas F. The sum of theology. – M.: Elkor-MK, 2002.- 560 p.
2. Blok M. Feudal society / Per. from fr. M. Yu. Kozhevnikova, E. M. Lysenko. - M.: Publishing house im. Sabashnikov, 2003. - 502 p.
3. History of economic doctrines: textbook / G. D. Gloveli. - M.: Yurayt Publishing House; ID Yurayt, 2011. - 740 p.
4. Le Goff J. Civilization of the Medieval West. 1st ed. - M.: IG "Progress", Progress-Academy, 1992. - 376 p.
5. Schumpeter J.A. History of economic analysis / per. from English. ed. V.S. Avtonomov, in 3 volumes - St. Petersburg: School of Economics, 2001. -T. 1. - 552 p., T. 2. - 504 p., T. 3. - 688 p.
6. Yadgarov Ya.S. History of Economic Thought. 4th ed., revised. and additional - M.: M, 2009. - 480 p.
The economic worldviews of the Middle Ages (feudal society) have a pronounced theological character. The scientific heritage of this era is overwhelmed with religious and ethical norms, through which the class character and hierarchical structure of society, the growth in the concentration of political power and economic power among secular and church feudal lords are justified.
Medieval economic thought in Eastern countries. The author of one of the significant economic concepts of that time is the thinker of the Arab East, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). His concept does not reject the piety of trade and the exalted attitude to work proclaimed by Islam, the condemnation of stinginess, greed and usury. The successful development of all sectors of the economy, the thinker believes, will allow multiplying the wealth of the people, making luxury the property of every person.
Ibn Khaldun showed an understanding that the provision of citizens with basic necessities and luxuries, or, in his terminology, "necessary" and "unnecessary", depends primarily on the degree of population of the city, symbolizing both its prosperity and decline. Therefore, if the city grows, there will be plenty of both "necessary" and "unnecessary" in it; at the same time, prices for the first (due to the participation in agriculture, including the townspeople) will decrease, and the prices for the second (due to a sharp increase in demand for luxury goods) will increase. And vice versa, the decline of the city as a result of the small number of the population living in it causes the lack and high cost of all material goods without exception. At the same time, the thinker notes that the lower the amount of taxes is set (including duties and extortions of rulers in city markets), the more real is the flourishing of any city and society as a whole.
Ibn Khaldun considers money to be the most important element of economic life, insisting that their role should be played by full-fledged coins made of two metals created by God - gold and silver. According to him, money reflects the quantitative content of human labor "in everything acquired."
Medieval economic thought in Western European countries. The most significant author of the Western European economic thought of the Middle Ages is called the Italian monk Thomas Aquinas (Aquinas) (1225-1274), attributed in 1879. the Catholic Church to the face of the saints.
In the period of the early Middle Ages, the dominant economic thought categorically condemned commercial profit and usurious interest, characterizing them as the result of improper exchange and appropriation of other people's labor, i.e. like a sin. Equivalent and proportional exchange was considered possible only if fair prices were established. The authors of that time opposed the contemptuous attitude towards physical labor characteristic of the ideologists of antiquity, the exclusive right to the wealth of individuals to the detriment of the majority of the population. Large-scale trade, lending transactions, as sinful phenomena, were generally prohibited.
Since the time of Augustine, wealth has been considered by canonists as a set of material goods, i.e. in kind, and was recognized as a sin if it was created by other means than the labor applied for this. In accordance with this postulate, the dishonorable increase (accumulation) of gold and silver, which by their nature were considered "artificial wealth", could not correspond to the moral and other norms of society. But, according to Aquinas, "fair prices" can be an indisputable source of the growth of private property and the creation of "moderate" wealth, which is not a sin.
Exchange in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages was perceived by researchers as an act of people's will, the result of which is proportional and equivalent.
A fair price is a category that, in the economic doctrine of the canonists, replaced the categories "value" and "market price". It was established and consolidated in a certain territory by the feudal nobility. The early canonists explained its level, as a rule, by referring to labor and material costs in the process of commodity production. However, F. Aquinas considers the costly approach of setting a fair price to be insufficiently exhaustive. According to him, along with this, it should be recognized that the seller can sell a thing for more than it costs by itself.
F. Aquinas points out that the reason for the emergence of money was the will of people to have the right measure in trade and turnover.
The economic views of the Middle Ages have a pronounced theological character. The author of one of the significant concepts is the thinker of the Arab East Ibn Khaldun(1332 - 1406), who lived in the North African countries of the Maghreb. By that time, the postulates of the Koran had spread here (Islam was born at the beginning of the 7th century).
The concept of Ibn Khaldun does not reject the piety of trade, emphasizing the lofty attitude to work, the condemnation of stinginess, greed and wastefulness. The main achievement of the thinker is a differentiated description of the evolution of society from "primitiveness" to "civilization".
Ibn Khaldun believed that the successful development of all sectors of the economy would multiply the wealth of the people many times over, make luxury the property of every person. The lower the amount of taxes is set, the more real is the flourishing of any city, society as a whole.
Ibn Khaldun recognized money as an important element of economic life, insisting that their role was played by full-fledged coins made of gold and silver. Money reflects "the quantitative content of human labor in everything acquired", "the value of any movable property", and in them "the basis for the acquisition of accumulation and treasure."
The most significant author of Western European thought in the Middle Ages is the Dominican Italian monk Thomas Aquinas(Aquinas) (1225 - 1274). His main work is the treatise "The Sum of Theology", which gives a moral and ethical description of economic categories.
Thomas Aquinas became a worthy successor and opponent of one of the founders of the school early canonism of St. Augustine(353 - 430), who at the end of the 4th - beginning of the 5th centuries, being a bishop in the possessions of the Roman Empire in North Africa, laid down the dogmatic principles of a religious and ethical approach to economic problems.
During the early Middle Ages, economic thought early canonists categorically condemned trading profits and usurious interest, characterizing them as the result of improper exchange and appropriation of other people's labor. Equivalent and proportional exchange was considered possible only if "fair prices" were established. Large-scale trade and lending transactions, as sinful phenomena, were prohibited.
The authors of church laws (canons) opposed the contemptuous attitude towards physical labor, the exclusive right to the wealth of individuals to the detriment of the majority of the population. In the period of the late Middle Ages, commodity-money relations acquired a fateful significance for society and the state. Therefore, later canonists expanded the range of arguments explaining economic problems and the causes of social inequality.
The methodological base on which the early canonists relied was authoritarianism of evidence(links to scriptures) and moral and ethical characteristics of economic categories. To these principles later canonists added the principle duality of estimates.
For example, if the early canonists, dividing labor into mental and physical, proceeded from divine destiny, then Aquinas clarifies this proof: “The division of people into various professions is due, firstly, to divine providence, which divided people into classes. Secondly, by natural causes, which determined that different people are inclined to different professions.
The division of labor requires an exchange, which is possible in 2 types: for own consumption and for profit (profit).
Wealth was considered by the early canonists as a set of material goods and was recognized as a sin if it was created by other means than the labor applied for this. According to Aquinas, "fair prices" can be the source of the growth of private property and the creation of "moderate" wealth, which is not a sin.
"Fair price"- this category replaced the concept of "market price". It was established and consolidated in a certain territory by the feudal nobility. The early canonists explained its level by labor and material costs in the process of commodity production. Aquinas believed that the seller has the right to sell a thing for more than it is worth on its own.
Trading profits, usurious interest were condemned by the early canonists. F. Aquinas also condemned them with certain reservations. It is necessary, in his opinion, that this kind of income should not be an end in itself, but a well-deserved payment for the labor, transport and other costs that take place in trade and lending operations, and even for risk.
Aquinas recognizes the need for money as a measure of value and means of circulation, but condemns the use of money to obtain interest (usury).
Medieval Europe is Christian Europe. In the Middle Ages, almost all scientists and thinkers were dressed in cassocks, but this does not mean that economic thought did not develop during the early Middle Ages. Problems appeared, unknown to the ancient world, which required reflection. The sources of medieval economic thought include mainly theological writings, where value judgments from the standpoint of Christian morality predominate. Diverse scholastic judgments, a priori, speculative nature, sophisticated norms of religious and ethical nature are inherent in medieval economic doctrines. An important principle of proving the correctness of judgments in the Middle Ages was the reference to the authority of the texts of the works of church theorists.
the desire for wealth is vicious, as it hinders the search for the Kingdom of God, is proof of the absence of true faith;
the inequality of people is natural and eternal: "people are equal before divine grace";
labor is the only source of existence (in the ancient world, labor was the lot of slaves).
The development of economic thought in the classical Middle Ages was greatly influenced by the so-called canonical doctrine.(In the 12th century, church scholars developed a code of laws called Canon Law.) The class interests of the feudal lords were decisive. "Code of Canon Law" compiled by a Bolognese monk Gratian is the most important source reflecting the economic views of the canons, who considered land and labor to be the true factors of production, therefore they attributed agriculture to occupations worthy of a Christian, and also did not approve of trade and usury.
The leading thinker of this period is F. Aquinas(1225-1274) - Italian monk of Dominican origin, professor at the Sorbonne, lectured in Paris, Cologne, Rome and Naples, declared a saint by the church. In his main work "Sum of Theology" F. Aquinas, taking into account the development of commodity-money relations, the growth of handicraft production, trade and usury operations, tries differently than the early canonists to explain the causes of social inequality in a more differentiated class division of society, to characterize "sinful phenomena". He distinguishes two types of justice: justice in exchange, based on the equality of exchanged goods, and justice in distribution, based on the determination of the fair share of each member of society in the social product, corresponding to the position of a person in society.
F. Aquinas adhered to the following key dogmas:
- condemned the desire for social equality, spoke about the need for class division of society;
- defended feudal rent, private property. He believed that the possession of property stimulates labor activity, imposes certain duties on the owner, in particular, to engage in charity;
- broke with natural economic views, justifying the exchange. He recognized the need for money as a measure of value and a means of circulation. However, the pricing process made it dependent on the status of the participants in the exchange (the doctrine of a fair price);
- subdivided wealth into natural (fruits of the earth, crafts) and artificial (gold, silver);
- first gave the concept of profit as a reward for risk; this contributed to the later idea that the charge of interest was justified by the risk of the lender.
In the East, in the Middle Ages, the subordination of economic views to religious ones was even more intensified, which was reflected in the fading in India of the so-called science of profit (income) "Arthashastra".
Arab economic thought reached a high level of development in the Middle Ages. Many economic views of the Arab world are reflected in religious literature, primarily in Koran(in translation meaning "reading"), namely:
the divine origin of property and social inequality, the holiness of the very dependence of some on others;
the principle of inviolability of private property [inadmissibility to appropriate other people's property, to enter the house without permission (thieves' hands were cut off)];
the payment of "cleansing mercy" as a national tax;
observance of exact measures and weights when performing trading operations;
Allah's prohibition is to take a high percentage.
Around 751, the Muslim law "Sharia" (from the Arabic "ash-shar'a" - law) developed, where legal and economic concepts were developed.
The pinnacle of economic thought in the medieval Arab world was the work of a prominent ideologist Ibn Khalduna(1332–1406). His life and work are connected with the Arab countries in northern Africa, where the state traditionally retained the right to own and dispose of land, to collect high taxes on the incomes of the population for the needs of the treasury. The main work of Ibn Khaldun is called "The book of instructive examples on the history of the Arabs, Persians, Berbers and the peoples who lived with them on earth." In it he put forward concept of social physics, which called for a conscious attitude to work, the fight against waste and greed, an understanding of the objectivity of progressive structural changes in the spheres of the economy and the unrealizability of property and social equality, and believed that Allah gave advantage to some people over others. Ibn Khaldun also substantiated theory of social development, according to which society, developing cyclically, goes through three stages in its movement:
1) "savagery", where people appropriate the fruits of nature by hunting and gathering:
2) "primitiveness", on which a primitive economy appears in the form of agriculture and cattle breeding;
3) "civilization", when handicraft and trade, concentrating in cities, receive development.
Ibn Khaldun put forward the following main ideas:
society is a collective of producers of material goods. All use-values are created by human labour;
everything that a person acquires in the form of wealth is equivalent to the value of the labor invested in it;
fluctuations in prices for goods depend on the ratio of supply and demand (he made the development of handicrafts dependent on the demand for handicrafts).
He also approached the issue of distinguishing between the necessary and surplus product, the problem of exploitation (“the noble and the rich enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor”).
Modern ideas about the features of the economic thought of the Middle Ages (feudal society), as well as the times of the ancient world, are based mainly on the materials of literary sources that have come down to us. But an essential feature of the ideology of the period under consideration, including in the field of economic life, is its purely theological character. Given the reason, medieval economic doctrines are characterized by a variety of intricacies of scholastic and sophistical judgments, bizarre norms of a religious, ethical and authoritarian nature, with the help of which it was supposed to prevent the future establishment of market economic relations and democratic principles of social order.
The medieval type of natural-economic relations, or feudalism, originated, as you know, in the III-VIII centuries. in a number of states of the East and V-XI centuries. - in European countries. And from the very beginning, all the fullness of political power and economic power in them was the property of secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords, who both explicitly and implicitly condemned the tendencies of expanding the scale of the economy's marketability and usury.
In economic literature, among the most significant representatives of medieval economic thought in the East, as a rule, is mentioned the prominent ideologist of the Arab states, Ibn Khaldun, and in Europe, the leader of the so-called late school of canonism, Thomas Aquinas. Their creative heritage will be discussed further.
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). His life and work are connected with the Arab countries in northern Africa, where, in the spirit of, as they say, the Asian mode of production, the state traditionally retained the right to own and dispose of significant land, collect burdensome taxes from the income of the population for the needs of the treasury. Moreover, since the beginning of the 7th century. “revelations of God” descended to the earth and the Meccan merchant Muhammad, the first preacher of the Koran, who heard them, announced to the Muslim world about a new (Islamic) religious ideology, it seemed that nothing could weaken the “omnipotence” of anti-market postulates.
Faith in the inviolability of the class differentiation of society, i.e. in the fact that “Allah gave advantage to some people over others”, as well as in the piety of essentially barter trade, at all stages of the evolution of society from “primitiveness” to “civilization” Ibn Khaldun tried to strengthen in the souls of all the faithful and Ibn Khaldun, putting forward with this the goal of the concept of a certain "social physics". At the same time, the latter is not devoid of certain instructive ideas and historical and economic generalizations, such as, for example, the need for an exalted attitude to work, condemnation of stinginess, greed and wastefulness, understanding the objective nature of progressive structural changes in the spheres of the economy, thanks to which people’s long-standing economic concerns in agriculture and cattle breeding, relatively new occupations in handicraft production and trade were added.
The transition to civilization and, accordingly, the excess production of material goods will allow, according to Ibn Khaldun, to multiply the national wealth many times over, and over time, each person will be able to gain greater prosperity up to luxury items, but at the same time universal social and property equality will never come and will not disappear. the division of society into "layers" (estates) on the basis of property and the principle of "leadership".
Developing the thesis about the problem of wealth and lack of material goods in society, the thinker points to its conditionality primarily by the size of cities, more precisely, by the degree of their population, and draws the following conclusions:
with the growth of the city, prosperity grows in the “necessary” and “unnecessary”, leading to a decrease in prices for the first and an increase in prices for the second, and at the same time testifying to the prosperity of the city;
the small population of the city is the cause of the shortage and high cost of all material goods necessary for its population;
the flourishing of the city (as well as society as a whole) is real in the face of declining size of the nachogs, including duties and extortions of the rulers in the city markets.
Finally, Ibn Khaldun considers money to be the most important element of economic life, insisting that their role be played by full-fledged coins from two metals created by God - gold and silver. According to him, money reflects the quantitative content of human labor "in everything acquired", the value of "any movable property", and in them "the basis of acquisition, accumulation and treasure". He is completely unbiased in characterizing the "cost of labour", i.e. wages, arguing that its size depends, firstly, “on the number of a person’s labor”, secondly, “his place among other labors” and, thirdly, on “people’s need for it” (in labor. - - Ya.Ya.).
Thomas of Aquia (Aquinas) (1225-1274). This Italian friar of Dominican origin is considered the most authoritative figure of the school of canonists mentioned above at a later stage in its development. His views in the field of the socio-economic structure of society differ significantly from the positions of the founder of canonism, or, as they say, the early school of canonists, Augustine the Blessed (353-430). At the same time, at first glance, Aquinas, like Augustine, relies on the same principles of a religious and ethical nature, on the basis of which the school interpreted the “rules” of economic life, the establishment of “fair prices” and the achievement of equivalent and proportional exchange for several centuries.
In fact, F. Akviisky, taking into account the realities of his time, is looking for relatively new "explanations" of social inequality in the conditions of a more differentiated, than before, class division of society. In particular, in the work “The Sum of Theology”, he operates not with single, but with mass manifestations of signs of large-scale commodity-money relations asserting themselves from day to day in cities that have grown in number and power. In other words, unlike the early canonists, F. Aquinas no longer characterizes the progressive growth of urban handicraft production, large-scale trade and usury operations as exclusively sinful phenomena and does not require their prohibition.
From the point of view of methodological positions, the author of the Summa teologii outwardly has almost no differences with the early canonists. However, if the latter adhered to the principle of undeniable authoritarianism of the texts of Holy Scripture and the works of church theorists, as well as the method of moral and ethical substantiation of the essence of economic categories and phenomena, then F. Aquinas, along with the named “tools” of research, actively uses the so-called principle of duality of assessments, which allows sophistry diametrically change the essence of the original interpretation of the economic phenomenon or economic category.
For example, if the early canonists, dividing labor into mental and physical types, proceeded from the divine (natural) purpose, but did not separate these types from each other, taking into account their influence on the dignity of a person in connection with their position in society, then F. Aquinas " clarifies" this "proof" in favor of the class division of society. At the same time, he writes: “The division of people into different professions is due, firstly, to divine providence, which divided people into classes ... Secondly, by natural causes that determined that different people are inclined to different professions ... "(Italics mine. -Ya.Ya.u.
In comparison with the early canonists, the author of the Summa Theologia also takes a dual and compromise position regarding the interpretation of such economic categories as wealth, exchange, cost (value), money, trade profit, usurious interest. Let us briefly consider this position of the scientist in relation to each named category.
Since the time of Augustine, wealth has been considered by canonists as a set of material goods, i.e. in kind, and was recognized as a sin if it was created by means other than the labor applied for this. In accordance with this postulate, the dishonorable increase (accumulation) of gold and silver, which by their nature were considered "artificial wealth", could not correspond to the moral and other norms of society. But, according to Aquinas, "fair prices" (which will be discussed below) can be an indisputable source of the growth of private property and the creation of "moderate" wealth, which is not a sin.
Exchange in the ancient world and in the Middle Ages was perceived by researchers as an act of people's will, the result of which is proportional and equivalent. Without rejecting this principle, F. Aquinas draws attention to the numerous examples that turn the exchange into a subjective process that ensures the equality of the benefits gained from seemingly non-equivalent exchange of things. In other words, the conditions of exchange are violated only when the thing "becomes for the benefit of one and to the detriment of the other."
“Fair price” is a category that in the economic doctrine of the canonists replaced the categories “value” (value), “market price”. It was established and consolidated in a certain territory by the feudal nobility. The early canonists "explained" its level, as a rule, by referring to labor and material costs in the process of commodity production. However, F. Aquinas considers the costly approach of setting a “fair price” to be insufficiently exhaustive. According to him, along with this, it should be recognized that the seller can “rightfully sell the thing for more than it costs by itself”, and at the same time it “will not be sold for more than it costs the owner”, otherwise the seller will be damaged who will not receive the amount of money corresponding to his position in society, and the whole "public life".
Money (coins) by F. Aquinas are interpreted similarly to the authors of the ancient world and early canonism. He points out that the cause of their occurrence was the will of people to possess the "most reliable measure" in "trade and turnover." Expressing his commitment to the nominalist concept of money, the author of The Sum of Theology admits that although coins have an "intrinsic value", the state is nevertheless entitled to allow some deviation of the coin's value from its "intrinsic value". Here the scientist is again true to his predilection for duality, on the one hand, recognizing that the deterioration of the coin can make it meaningless to measure the denomination of money in the foreign market, and on the other hand, entrusting the state with the right to establish the "nominal value" of the money to be minted at its discretion.
Commercial profit and usurious interest were condemned by the canonists as unpleasing, i.e. sinful phenomena. F. Aquinas "condemned" them with certain reservations and clarifications. Therefore, as a result, in his opinion, trading profit and interest on a loan should still be appropriated respectively by the merchant (merchant) and usurer, if it is obvious that they are doing quite decent deeds. In other words, it is necessary that this kind of income should not be an end in itself, but a well-deserved payment and reward for the labor, transport and other material costs that take place in trade and lending operations, and even for risk.