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영어

This paper aims at reinterpreting Thomas Aquinas’ texts dealing with the question of the just price by applying an adequate methodology to them. Earlier researchers understood that the just price, according to Thomas, was determined by the utility or the cost of production including the labor, or both. But my more systematic and thorough examination of the texts in question reveals that Thomas considered that the just price was determined by various factors, such as the value of goods, the balance of profit and loss between sellers and buyers, the utility, the labor, the quantity of demand and supply, and the market price in time of transaction. However, he did not explain exactly how these elements determined the just price. This seems to be understandable, for Thomas was not interested in accounting for the price determination in the economic reality, but in deciding whether a certain price is just or not. This reflects the normative viewpoints of the medieval theologians who treated the economic phenomena. Contrary to the tendency of the modern economics since the Renaissance, which has disregarded ethical problems, today the relationship of economy and ethics emerges as an object of scientific discussion of the economics. Against this background, our study on a normative approach of the just price, which is a representative subject of medieval thoughts of the economics, can be a very significant contribution.