Raymond de Roover

The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy

In The concept view of many economists the just price is a nebulous concept invented by pious monks who knew nothing of business or economics and were blissfully unaware of market mechanisms. It is true that certain writers, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, have done their best to accredit this fairy tale and to propagate the notion that the just price, instead of being set by the allegedly blind and unconscionable forces of the market, was determined by criteria of fairness without regard to the elements of supply and demand or at least with the purpose of eliminating the evils of unrestrained competition.

Scholastic Economics: Survival and Lasting Influence from the Sixteenth Century to Adam Smith

I. Introduction: the medieval contribution, 161. — II. The school of Salamanca, 167. — III. The demise of scholastic economics, 171. — IV. Scholasticism and mercantilism: a contrast, 177. — V. Conclusions, 185.

The Scholastics, Usury, and Foreign Exchange

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.

The Story of the Alberti Company of Florence, 1302–1348, as Revealed in Its Account Books

This study is an attempt to reconstruct the history of a medieval company on the basis of the extant fragments of its account books, the only surviving records. Despite the incompleteness of the data, it was possible to reach important conclusions and to show that the continued existence of a medieval firm depended on the same factors as today: coordination, efficient management, and effective control. The records also shed interesting light on personnel relations, adjustment to new trends, and the attitude of the merchants toward the Church.

The Account Books of Collard de Marke

Very little is known about Collard de Marke, whose account books I examined in the Municipal Archives of Bruges in the summer of 1937, except that he was one of the sixteen money-changers licensed to practice in Bruges during the 1360s. That much is clear from the municipal records in which he is listed among the money-changers who were fined because they had exchanged nobles (a Flemish coin) at an illegal rate. His account books are of great value to the business historian because they show very definitely that the medieval money-changers did not confine themselves to mere exchange transactions and to trade in gold and silver, but that, as early as the middle of the fourteenth century, they had extended their field of activity by going into the banking business. They received money on deposit and made loans to reliable customers.