On the Shoulders of Giants



In our present technological age, it is common for priests to encounter new moral questions from their parishioners in the sacrament of Confession. Some examples might be: “Is email spamming immoral?” “Is it lawful to copy music files from the internet?” In the Middle Ages, as capitalism began to spread and flourish across Catholic Europe, priests, acting in the capacity of confessors, often encountered similar problems. These confessors discovered that Catholic businessmen began venturing into unfamiliar moral problems, of which there were many. “Could interest lawfully be charged on a loan?” “What kind of currency exchange is morally acceptable?” “Could an architect rightly be paid more than the builders?”

In an effort to properly answer these questions, these priests wrote confessional manuals to instruct other priests as to what was considered a sin, and what the appropriate penance should be, if any. In an age in which the laity took very seriously their confessional obligations, these priests realized that they would have to delve into economic laws and theories in order to accurately address these new ethical concerns.

In the course of their study and research concerning matters of economics and business, there was a surprising result: an unexpected thing happened: these priests, monks, and university professors turned out to be world-class economists.

There are far too many names to discuss them all, but a few can clarify this point.

World famous economist Murray Rothbard commented that Cardinal Cajetan, the 16th Century Dominican, “can be considered the founder of expectations theory in economics.”1

Another famous economic historian, Raymond de Roover, claimed that St. Bernardino of Siena, the 15th Century Franciscan, penned “one of the first, if not the very first…general survey of the field of economics.”2

Renowned economist Joseph Schumpeter commented that St. Antoninus, the 15th Century Florentine Archbishop, was “the first man to whom it is possible to ascribe a comprehensive vision of the economic process in all its major aspects.”3

This is high praise for men who would never have considered themselves economists in the first place. They were able to arrive at such great knowledge due to the fact that they recognized order in the universe, order of the Creator. They recognized that just as order exists in the laws of physics, so to does order exist in the laws of economics.

Eight years ago, when I founded my investment firm, I sought to answer these questions concerning money and finance. Specifically, I sought to determine whether or not it were morally permissible to invest in companies whose business directly or indirectly violated the natural law. I found the answer, and in the process, discovered an incredible wealth of information that these greatest mind of the Church had written about economics.

Instead of treating such questions of taxation and investing as novel ideas that are being freshly addressed in the Twenty-First Century, we Catholics should study those saintly intellectual giants who have already formulated many Catholic answers for us.

Isaac Newton was once congratulated for his genius in constructing one of his scientific theories. Being a humble man, and recognizing that his work would have been impossible without countless others who had come before him, Newton stated: “If I have seen farther, it is because I have been standing on the shoulders of giants.”

When questions of business and economics present themselves for discussion, let’s remember that many, if not most, of these questions have already been answered. As our financial discusses progress, let us proudly cite these great saints for what they are—some of the greatest economists of all time.



Notes:

1. Rothbard, Murray N. Economic Thought Before Adam Smith: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, Volume I. Edward Elgar Publishing, 1995, page 101.

2. De Roover, Raymond. San Bernardino of Siena and Sant’Antonino of Florence: Two Great Economic Thinkers of the Middle Ages. Boston: Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1967, page 1.

3. Schumpeter, Joseph A. History of Economic Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. Page 95.

John Clark is the CEO of Paladin Financial Group. Paladin specializes in helping Catholics invest their money in a pro-life way. He may be reached at jclark@investprolife.com. This article is part of Paladin's sponsorship of the Money and Economics channel.

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