ABSTRACT
The general economic ethos was transformed. The medieval ideal of communal balances was displaced by individualist assumptions. In part, it was a change from “conditional” to “absolute” property. The “conditional” view decreed that property was a trust from God, which should not be used against the interests of one’s neighbours, and was at the behest of the king as guardian of the common good. It was in the overturning of these two precepts that the concept of “absolute” property was forged. “Absolute” property asserted the right of the individual to profit freely, and not to be taxed except by consent. The change had a crucial commercial aspect, which I have identified as the demand for a principled right of freedom of trade from arbitrary exactions and restraints. This is seen emerging in the mid-sixteenth century, coming gradually into tension with the policies and powers of the crown, and receiving first public expression by the House of Commons in 1604. The assertion of commercial freedoms was reflected in the disappearance of the old moral restraints through which the authorities had sought to control the price of essential foodstuffs. The market came to be regarded as its own regulator.
