ABSTRACT

The idea of responsibility had a crucial meaning in the mediaeval scholastic attitude toward entrepreneurship. The responsibility could be graded in different levels. For instance in contract called foenus nauticum, the lender of the capital, took responsibility, but only in case of the sea catastrophe. Periculum was considered as well, as criteria justifying profit, as labor and entrepreneurship ability. The analysis of scholastic ethical-economic texts not only reflected the early development of market economy, but it had the influence on mentality and social relations. Contracts often stipulated that the seller was authorized to re-buy rent on the original price, and recover in this way annual income. In the recent significant studies by Giovanni Ceccarelli and S. Piron the role of uncertainty in economic views of mediaeval scholastic doctors is underscored: risk and uncertainty of profit were criteria which in certain circumstances repealed the charge of usury.