Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:17:39.901Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Scholastics, Usury, and Foreign Exchange

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Raymond de Roover
Raymond de Roover
Affiliation:
Professor of History, Brooklyn College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Did the doctrine of usury hamper businessmen and retard economic growth during the Middle Ages? Professor de Roover suggests an answer through examination of the conceptual modification of the doctrine in relation to banking and foreign exchange.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1967 , pp. 257 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For a full exposition of the life and economic thought of these Schoolmen, see de Roover, Raymond, San Bernardino of Siena and Sant'Antonino of Florence: The Two Great Economic Thinkers of the Middle Ages (Publication No. 19 of The Kress Library of Business and Economics, Boston, 1967) upon which this article is based. Full bibliographical information on the writings and editions of these friars' work is also presented thereGoogle Scholar.

2 Corpus juris canonici, Decretum Gratiani cum glossis (Venice, 1584)Google Scholar: canon Plerique, Causa XIV, qu. 3, c. 3. This is a text taken from St. Ambrose, Tobia 14.9. The definition of Hostiensis is the most elaborate of the three. Cf. San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 36, art. 1, cap. 1, 2, and 3, Opera omnia (8 vols., Florence, 1950–1963), IV, 204–206Google Scholar. This edition of San Bernardino edited and published by the Franciscan Fathers of St. Bonaventure Friary at Quaracchi is the only one that should henceforth be used for scholarly purposes. All references herein, unless otherwise indicated, are to this edition.

3 Noonan, John T. Jr., The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), 365–67Google Scholar. Cf. Hauser, Henri, “Les idées économiques de Calvin,” Les débuts du capitalisme (new ed.; Paris, 1931), 45–79Google Scholar.

4 San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 36, art. 1, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 206): “Usura est lucrum ex mutuo principaliter intentum.” This definition was apparently given by Raymond of Pennaforte.

5 Ibid., sermon 36, art. 1, cap. 1 and 2, art. 2, cap. 1, 2, and 3 and sermon 37, art. 1, cap. 2 (Opera omnia, IV, 205, 207–209, 224–25).

6 Corpus juris canonici, Decretum: gloss to the words Quod autem, Causa XIV, qu. 3.

7 San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 36, art. 2, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 208–209). Cf. Corpus juris canonici, Decretum: canon Si foeneraveris, Causa XIV, qu. 3, c. 1.

8 San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 37, art. 1, cap. 1 and 3 (Opera omnia, TV, 223–24, 225–27).

9 Ibid., sermon 38, art. 1, cap. 2 and 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 244–47).

10 Politics i. 8. 1258b.

11 De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 34, art. 1, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 170). Cf. Antal, Frederick, Florentine Painting and its Social Background (London, 1948), 41Google Scholar.

12 Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, II–II, qu. 62, art. 4, ad. 1 and 2, Opera omnia (25 vols., Parma, 1852–1873Google Scholar, Reprinted, New York, 1948–1950), III, 233. Cf. ibid., qu. 61, art. 3, resp. and qu. 78, art. I, resp. and ad. 6 (Parma ed., III, 229, 280) where it is stated that money is sterile.

13 San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 39, art. 2, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 281–82).

14 Ibid., sermon 37, art. 1, cap. 2 (Opera omnia, IV, 224–25). San Bernardino uses a different terminology and speaks of a mutuum verum (real loan) and a mutuum interpretatum (false loan).

15 Ibid., sermon 39, art. 2, cap. 1, 2, 3, and 4 (Opera omnia, IV, 277–88). San Bernardino shows how usury can be concealed in other contracts (emptio venditio, locatio, societas, and contractus commissionis).

16 Corpus juris canonici, Decretales: canon Consuluit, Extra. Gregory IX, V, 19, 10; San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 34, art. 3, cap. 2 (Opera omnia, IV, 184–86).

17 Ibid., art. 1, cap. 2 (Opera omnia, TV, 167).

18 Ibid., cap. 1 (Opera omnia, TV, 165).

19 Ibid., art. 3, cap. 1 (Opera omnia, TV, 183–84). This text was borrowed from a MS by Pierre de Jean Olivi, O.F.M. (1248–1298), Tractatus de contractibus, de usurariis et de restitutionibus (Public Library of Siena, codice U.V. 6, fol. 316).

20 De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 34, art. 3, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 188). Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, II–II, qu. 78, art. 2, ad. 7 (Parma ed., III, 282); Monroe, Arthur E., Early Economic Thought (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), 73Google Scholar.

21 Barbieri, Gino, “Rassegna delle forze del lavoro e della produzione nella ‘Summa’ di Sant'Antonino da Firenze,” Economia e storia, VII (1960), 27Google Scholar.

22 De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 34, art. 1, cap. 2 and 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 167–71).

23 ibid., art. 2, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, TV, 180–82).

24 Sant'Antonino, , Summa theologica in quattuor partes distribuita, ed. by Pietro, and Ballerini, Girolamo (Verona, 1740–1741)Google Scholar, II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 3 (col. 89e):

“Feuda, fideiussor, pro dote, stipendia cleri,

Venditio fructus, cui velle iure noceri,

Vendens sub dubio pretium, post tempora solvens,

Poena nec in fraudem, lex commissoria, gratis

Dans, socii, pompa, plus sorte modis datur istis.”

25 San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 42, art. 3, cap. 1 (Opera omnia, TV, 362–64).

26 de Roover, Raymond, “Joseph A. Schumpter and Scholastic Economics,” Kyklos, X (1957), 140–41Google Scholar.

27 Noonan, Scholastic Analysis, 120.

28 Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, II–II, qu. 78, art. 2, ad. 1 (Parma ed., III, 281). Cf. Monroe, Early Economic Thought, 71.

29 Summa theologica, Part II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 18 (cols. 100–101).

30 de Roover, Raymond, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 101–107Google Scholar; Di Tucci, Raffaele, Studi sull'economia genovese del secolo decimosecondo: La nave e i contratti marittimi, la banca privata (Turin, 1933), 88Google Scholar. The date of the contract is July 20, 1190. The text of this contract is also published in Chiaudano, Mario and Rocca, Raimondo Morozzo della (eds.), Oberto Scriba de Mercato, 1190 (Turin, 1938), 223, No. 565Google Scholar.

31 Summa theologica, II, tit. 1, cap. 6, § 2 (col. 80e) and cap. 7 § 34 (col. 109e, 110a) and § 36 (col. 112b).

32 de Roover, Medici Bank, 103. In Florence, deposits a discrezione were also placed with textile manufacturers, spicers, and others.

33 San Antonino, Summa theologica, II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 35 (col. 110e).

34 Hamelin, Alonso M., O.F.M., , Un traité de morale économique au XIVe siècle: le “Tractatus de Usuris” de Maître Alexandre d'Alexandrie (Louvain, 1962), 134Google Scholar, § 31–32. Alexander of Alexandria (Piedmont) is but another name for Alexander Lombard.

35 San Antonino, Summa theologica, II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 34 (col. 110a).

36 Ibid., II, tit. 1, cap. 23 (col. 313b).

37 Corpus juris canonici, Decretum: canon Si quis, Causa XIV, qu. 4, c. 10 and canon Nolite velle, Causa XIV, qu. 5, c. 1; idem, Decretales: canon Cum tu, Extra. Gregory IX, V, 19, 5. For the practical application of these principles, see Edler de Roover, Florence, “Restitution in Renaissance Florence,” Studi in onore di Armando Sapori (Milan, 1957), 773–89Google Scholar. Gains derived from prostitution, unlike usury, were to be given to the poor. San Antonino, Summa theologica, Part II, tit. 1, cap. 23, § 10 (col. 324e).

38 De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 43, art. 3, cap. 1–3 (Opera omnia, IV, 377–87).

39 Summa theologica, III, tit. 8, cap. 3, § 1 (col. 301b).

40 The real name of Bernardino da Feltre was Martino Tomitani. See Barbieri, Gino, Il beato Bernardino da Feltre nella storia sociale del Rinascimento (Milan, 1962)Google Scholar.

41 Ciardini, Mario, I banchieri ebrei in Firenze nel secolo XV e il Monte di Pietà fondato da Girolamo Savonarola (Borgo San Lorenzo, 1907), 76–79Google Scholar.

42 To my knowledge, the first theologian to do so was Alexander Lombard, who defined cambium as a permutatio. See Hamelin, Alonso M., Un traité de morale économique au XIVe siècle: le “Tractatus de Usuris” de Maître Alexandre d'Alexandrie (Louvain, 1962), 182, Nos. 140–41Google Scholar.

43 A complete bibliography of this controversy is given in my book, L'évolution de la lettre de change (Paris, 1953), 170–223Google Scholar. See also Luciano Dalle Molle, Il contratto di cambio net moralisti dal secolo XIII alla metà del secolo XVII (Rome, 1954)Google Scholar. The tendency of this book is apologetic. A summary of the controversy is given in Noonan, Scholastic Analysis of Usury, chaps, viii and xvi, 171–92, 311–39.

44 de Roover, Raymond, “Les doctrines économiques des scolastiques: à propos du traité sur l'usure d'Alexandre Lombard,” Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, LIX (1964), 864–66Google Scholar.

45 De justitia et jure, lib. VI, qu. 8, art. 1, in principio.

46 Raymond de Roover, “Alexandra Lombard,” op. cit., 858.

47 A good deal has been published on this subject in recent years. See my Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), chap, vi, 108–135Google Scholar and for bibliography, my L'évolution de la lettre de change (Paris, 1953), 161–70Google Scholar.

48 de Roover, Raymond, “Early Accounting Problems of Foreign Exchange,” The Accounting Review, XIX (1944), 381–407Google Scholar. This article is very technical and is based on the Datini and Borromei account books (late 14th and mid-15th centuries).

49 Wilson, Thomas, A Discourse upon Usury, ed. by Tawney, R. H. (New York, 1925), 109Google Scholar.

50 Thomas Wilson (1525–1587) states this matter very plainly and is absolutely right: “And the reason is the uncertainty of gaine and the doubtfulnes of profite, for that thorowe the alteracion of th' exchange, the deliverer or lender of money maye chaunce to susteyn losse sometimes: and therefore, this adventure and hazarde considered in the exchange, they say, there is no usurie at all” (Discourse, 306). See de Roover, Raymond, Gresham on Foreign Exchange: An Essay on Early English Mercantilism (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), 101–102, 147–48, 162–63, 170–72, 313–17Google Scholar.

51 San Bernardino follows Alexander Lombard in classifying the cambium contract as a permutatio (De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 39, art. 3, cap. 1 (Opera omnia, IV, 289); Sant'Antonino, Summa theologica, III, tit. 8, cap. 3 (col. 299e).

52 De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 39, art. 3, cap. 1 (Opera omnia, IV, 289). The idea originates with Alexander Lombard. See Hamelin, Un traité de morale économique, 182–83, Nos. 139 and 142.

53 De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 39, art. 3, cap. 2 (Opera omnia, IV, 294): “… sed si esset dubium, ratione dubii probabiliter vel communiter accidentis contractus excusatur.” He follows Alexander Lombard very closely in this matter (Hamelin, Un traité, 179–80, Nos. 134–35). As John T. Noonan correctly points out, this is an application of the principle venditio sub dubio, which applies to credit sales (Scholastic Analysis of Usury, 18384).

54 de Roover, “Alexandre Lombard,” op. cit., 860.

55 Dry exchange was a form of exchange and re-exchange involving a conversion of local currency into foreign currency and a re-conversion of this foreign currency into local currency. One transaction cancelled the other, but there was a profit (or loss), if the conversion and re-conversion were made at different rates. See San Bernardino, De Evangelio aeterno, sermon 39, art. 3, cap. 3 (Opera omnia, IV, 294–95). His source is Lorenzo di Antonio Ridolfi (1360–1442), who wrote a treatise De usuris and questioned, without explicitly condemning, whether dry exchange was licit (de Roover, Evolution de la lettre de change, 197).

56 He deals with cambium in two different places of his Summa theologica: II, tit. 1 (De avaritia), cap. 7, § 47–50 (cols. 122b–125) and III, tit. 8 (De statu mercatorum), cap. 3 (cols. 299a–303a). The wording is not exactly the same, but there is nevertheless a great deal of duplication in the two versions.

57 Summa theologica, II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 47 (col. 122e) and III, tit. 8, cap. 3 (col. 299e).

58 Ibid., II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 48 (col. 123a) and III, tit. 8, cap. 3 (col. 299e).

59 This statement is borne out by the records of the bankers themselves and confirmed by statistical data and economic analysis. See above, notes 47, 48, and 49.

60 Summa theologica. III, tit. 8, cap. 3 (col. 300b).

61 This was already pointed out in 1896 by Richard Ehrenberg, Capital and Finance in the Age of the Renaissance, trans, by H. M. Lucas (New York, n. d.), 43: “… the interest was smuggled into the price of the bills.” Ehrenberg makes this statement but does not explain how interest was inserted.

62 de Roover, , The Medici Bank: Its Organization, Management, Operations, and Decline (New York, 1948), 82–85Google Scholar, gives an example drawn from the Medici account books; idem, “Cambium ad Venetias: Contribution to the History of Foreign Exchange,” Studi in onore di Armando Sapori (Milan, 1957), 629–48, discusses several cases found in the ledger of the Aretine merchant Lazzaro Bracci. Cf. idem, “What Is Dry Exchange? A Contribution to the Study of Mercantilism,” Journal of Political Economy, LII (1944), 250–66.

63 Summa theologica, II, title 1, cap. 6, § 2 (col. 80d) and cap. 7, § 49 (cols. 123–124) and III, tit. 8, cap. 3 (cols. 299e–300a).

64 Ibid., II, tit. 1, cap. 7, § 50 (col. 125) and III, tit. 8, cap. 3 (cols. 301e–302).

65 de Roover, Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 201, 213, 287.

66 Corpus juris canonici, Decretales: canon Quia in omnibus, Extra. Gregory IX, V, 19, 3, and canon Ex gravi, Clement, V, 19, 1. The first canon is a decision of the Lateran Council in 1179.

67 “Investment and Usury,” Venice and History: The Collected Papers of Frederic C. Lane (Baltimore, 1966), 67–68Google Scholar.