ABSTRACT
The Medieval Standpoint.—In the Middle Ages, the scientific study of economic phenomena was practically unknown. By scientific study is here meant the impartial investigation of facts, and their combination into generalizations or laws, without any attempt to pass judgement on them from the moral standpoint, or to suggest ways in which they may be modified in practice. In brief, the object of the scientist is to discover ‘what is’ in contrast with ‘what should be’ or with ‘what might be’. In every department of knowledge, this scientific attitude developed late. In economics it did not appear till the eighteenth century. Prior to that, economic speculation was always directed towards some practical end, either to discover means by which man’s wealth-producing capacity might be augmented, or else to adjust economic behaviour to the requirements of an ethical standard. It was the second of these motives that prevailed in the Middle Ages. Economic practices were approved or condemned according as they agreed or disagreed with the principles of Christian morality. On such questions, the Church, of course, was the final arbiter, and its economic teaching, embodied in the Canon Law or in such authoritative statements of Christian doctrine as the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–75), was a powerful influence in moulding contemporary opinion and practice.
