Salamanca School

The main representatives of the Salamanca school are Dominicans : its founder Francisco de Vitoria , his students Melchor Cano and Domingo de Soto , Dr. Martin de Aspilqueta Navarro and their followers don Diego de Covarrubias i Leiva , Thomas de Mercado , Bartolome de Medina , Domingo de Banyes , as well as the Jesuits : Luis de Molina , Juan de Salas , Juan de Lugo ; and lawyers Jeronimo Castillo de Bovadilla , Pedro de la Gasca , Juan de Matienso .

The economic views of Salamanca professors have been set forth mainly in their comments on questions 77 (“ On fraud committed on purchases and sales ”) and 78 (“ On the sin of usury committed on loan ”) of the second part of the second part of the Code of Theology ”(“ Summa Theologiae ”) of St. Thomas , which is abbreviated as“ The second of the second ”(“ Secunda Secundae ”, 1271) ^[1] .

Based on an analysis of the writings of Spanish theologians of the 16th century and relying on work to study their economic thought, the following important components of their contribution to economic science can be distinguished:

• Differentiation of market and cost pricing methods in accordance with the number of market participants ( Francisco de Vitoria ).
• The division of market participants into three main groups (sellers, buyers and goods), from which the market price is determined (Juan de Medina).
• Formulation of the theory of purchasing power parity of money ( Domingo de Soto , Pedro de la Gasca , Martin de Aspilqueta Navarro , Thomas de Mercado , Domingo de Banes ).
• The discovery of the quantitative theory of money ( Martin de Aspilqueta Navarro , Pedro de la Gasca ).
• Opening mechanisms of market competition between buyers ( Luis de Molina ) and between sellers ( Jeronimo Castillo de Bovadilla ).
• Formulation of the doctrine of the demand for money and the inclusion in the money supply of banknotes, checks and bills along with coins ( Luis de Molina ).
• Development of the theory of the free market ( Juan de Mathienzo , Juan de Lugo )
• Deriving the value of money from its marginal utility ( Juan de Lugo , Francisco Garcia ).
• The thesis that it is impossible for a person to know the "fair price" of a product in view of the many factors that determine it ( Juan de Salas , Juan de Medina).

With the onset of the 17th century , the decline in the economic and political power of Spain began, and with it the economic thought of the Salamanca school. The economic philosophy of the Spanish theologians was replaced by the political economy of the English, French, and Italian mercantilists .

• A Latin proverb came into common use: “ Quod natura non dat, Salamantica non praestat ” (“ What nature does not give, Salamanca does not make up for ”) ^[2] .

• Quantitative theory of money
• Physiocrats
• Mercantilism

• Afanasyev A.A. Economic thought in Spain of the 16th century - Salamanca School // Economics and Mathematical Methods. - 2004. - Volume 40. - No. 4. - S. 26-58. [one]
• Litavrina-Pons E.E. The memorial of the Spanish economist Luis Ortiz and the emergence of the ideas of protectionism in Spain in the 16th century. // Middle Ages. - 1961. - Issue. XIX. - S. 142–159. [2]
• Litavrina-Pons E.E. Spanish economist of the 16th century Thomas Mercado on the causes and essence of the “price revolution” // Europe in the Middle Ages: economics, politics, culture. - M.: Publishing House "Science", 1972. - C.249–259. [3]
• Schumpeter J. History of Economic Analysis = History of Economic Analysis. - SPb. : School of Economics, 2004.
• Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson (1952). The School of Salamanca: Readings in Spanish Monetary Theory, 1544-1605
• - (1978). Early Economic Thought in Spain, 1177-1740 .
• - (1993). Economic thought in Spain. Selected Essays of Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson , edited with an introduction by Laurence Moss and Christopher K. Ryan.

• The School of Salamanca on the History of Economic Thought website.
• Murray Rothbard, New Light on the Prehistory of the Austrian School Essay originally published in The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics , edited by Edwin Dolan (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1976), pp. 52–74.
• Peter Chojnowski, Corporation Christendom: The True School of Salamanca (link not available) . The Angelus , January 2005 Volume XXVIII, Number 1. (Contends that the alleged economic liberalism is based on a misreading of scholastic texts.)
• Leonard P. Liggio, The Heritage of the Spanish Scholastics . Acton Institute, Religion & Liberty , January and February 2000, Volume 10, Number 1.
• Preparing Mare Liberum for the Press by Martine Julia van Ittersum Puts into context of truce negotiations 1608-09. Ittersum (p. 18) notes Grotius' citing of School of Salamanca figures, as well as the Ancient Greek, Roman and early Church Fathers (p. 12).