Scholastic Economics

Abstract

The first European universities were founded in the twelfth century, and from then on economics came into the hands of university professors. There had been cathedral schools even earlier, but their teachings were mainly derivatives of patristic thought. In the high Middle Ages a number of external events and inventions drew attention to economic phenomena from a theoretical point of view. The crusades had opened up the world, towns and markets were expanding with the growing economies, new commercial techniques were being introduced. Simultaneously, those searching for norms to guide behavior in this increasingly important area were helped by the re-examination of the economic arguments of the ancient world, as documented in Roman law and in Greek philosophy. The thirteenth century saw the emergence of that famous synthesis known as scholasticism, in which these elements were fused with the patristic tradition, and of which economics is only a very small part.