ABSTRACT
Oresme in the fourteenth century can anticipate the monetary theory associated with the name of Gresham. In the fifteenth century Laurentius de Rudolfis can distinguish between trade bills and finance bills, and St. Antonino describe the significance of capital. While Baxter in 1673 can write a Christian Directory in the style of a medieval Summa, and Bunyan in 1680 can dissect the economic iniquities of Mr. Badman, who ground the peor with high prices and usury, in the manner of a medieval friar. The medieval economic world was marked, it is true, by certain common characteristics. In the numerous heretical movements of the Middle Ages social aspirations were often combined with criticisms of the luxury and pomp of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The ecclesiastical legislation on the subject of usury has been so often analyzed that it is needless to do more than allude to it.
