by The Medieval Ethical Framework for Market Transactions
This nomination for the Scholastic theologians, most notably Thomas Aquinas, who developed the doctrine of the “just price” in the 13th century. This was a sophisticated attempt to apply ethical reasoning to market economics. The just price was not a fixed number but the common estimation of a good’s value in an open, competitive market, free from fraud, coercion, or artificial scarcity. It condemned profiteering during famine and the exploitation of necessity. While difficult to enforce, this concept represented a serious intellectual engagement with market ethics, asserting that commerce had a moral dimension and that prices should reflect a fair exchange of value, not just what the market could bear. The just price doctrine (alongside its analysis of usury) proved that economic theory begins with questions of justice, and that for centuries, business ethics was considered a central, not peripheral, concern for the operation of markets.
