civil law

The Church Fathers preserved the classical assumption that since the material wealth of humanity was more or less fixed, the gain of some could only come at a loss to others. 

The Scholastic theologians of the period developed a more nuanced and less hostile attitude toward trade, distinguished profits arising from sales or the employment of others from the stigmatized category of usury.

Civil law emphasized the protection of property and served as a reservoir of more favorable attitudes toward the accumulation of wealth.

Thomas Aquinas revived and expanded Aristotle's arguments in favor of the social utility of private property. Aristotle view man as an essentially political being who could achieve his fullest development only through participation in the community.

Civil jurisprudence stressed the rule of law and regarded the protection of property from arbitrary confiscation by government as a central freedom.

Hugo Grotius (The rights of war and peace, 1625) asserted that there are several Ways of Living, some better than others, and every one may choose what he pleases of all those Sorts.

Smiths method of investigating social life: It called for an identifying widely shared psychological propensities-such as the propensity to seek the attention and approval of others- and for attempting to explain the regularities of human action in terms of those propensities.

Jansenist Jean Donnat declared in 1689 that self-love was "the incomprehensible remedy" which God had created the preserve society despite man's fallen state.

"The fall of man not having freed him from his wants, and having on the contrary multiplied them, it has also augmented the necessity of labor and commerce, and of ties; for no man being sufficient of himself to procure the necessaries and conveniences of life, the diversity of wants engages men in an infinite number of ties, without which they could not life. This state of mankind induces those who are governed only by a principle of self-love, to subject themselves to labor, to commerce, and to ties which their wants render necessary.  We see, then, in self-love, that this principle of all the evils is, a cause from whence it derives an infinite number of good effects. And thus we may consider this venom of society as a remedy which God makes use of for supporting it, seeing that although it produces in those persons whom it animates only corrupted fruits yet it imparts all these advantages to society."

Jansenist Pierre Nicole:
"Although nothing is more opposed to charity which relates everything to God than self-love which resolves entirely around the self, yet there is nothing more similar to the effects of charity than those of self-love.  So closely does it follow the same paths that one could hardly do better in marking those to which charity should lead us, than to discover those actually taken by enlightened self-love. Only God's grace can bring ultimate salvation, but enlightened self-love can create this-worldly "human decency".


According to the civic tradition, the pursuit of wealth corrupted the virtuous citizen, who should sacrifice his private concerns for those of the commonwealth, defending it in war and seeking glory. According to the Christian tradition, the pursuit of wealth distracted people from the pursuit of salvation. Voltaire attempted to reverse the terms of the Christian and civic traditions by making poverty seem sordid. "Abundance is the mother of the arts." Material prosperity was the prerequisite for civilization would be repeated by virtually every proponent of economic growth".

AS: The wealth of a state consists in the cheapness of provision and all other necessaries and conveniences of life.

Scottish :
Society could not be and need not be governed by some shared faith or purpose which dictated the proper distribution of property. It should property and exchange, but it should not try to provide "distributive justice" by allocating possessions according to some universally shared criteria, since there are no such criteria. David Hume (Enquiry concerning the principles of morals, 1751): "We shall suppose, that a creature, possessed of reason, but unacquainted with human nature, deliberates with himself what rules of justice or property would best promote public interest, and establish peace and security among mankind: His most obvious thought would be, to assign the largest possessions to the most extensive virtue, and give every one the power of doing good, proportioned to his inclination. In a perfect theocracy, where a being, infinitely intelligent, governs by particular volitions, this rule would certainly have place, and might serve to the wisest purposes: But were mankind to execute such a law; so great is the uncertainty of merit, both from its natural obscurity, and from the self-conceit of each individual, that no determinate rule of conduct would ever result from it; and the total dissolution of society must be the immediate consequence. Fanatics may suppose, that dominion is founded on grace, and that saints alone inherit the earth; but the civil magistrate very justly puts these sublime theorists on the same footing with common robbers, and teaches them by the severest discipline, that a rule, which, in speculation, may seem the most advantageous to society, may yet be found, in practice, totally pernicious and destructive."



voka..
AS: "Whenever the legislator attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are always the masters." "But in the mercantile system, the interest of consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce".

The merchants and manufacturers had the greatest success in persuading legislators that their particular interests were identical to the general interest. 


 Smith valued the market most because it promoted the development of cooperative modes of behavior and because it made men more self-controlled and more likely to subordinate their asocial passions to the needs of others."

Beneficence which prompts us to promote the happiness of others, is a superior virtue. Precisely for that reason, we cannot depend upon it or expect it of most men. We should applaud it when it occurs, but we should not use force to punish those who do not act as beneficently as we would wish. Justice is the sense of fairness which forbids us from injuring others for our own advantage.


Although commercial society provides for the "inferior prudence" required for the pursuit of self-interest, it also demands that at least some its members acquire that "superior prudence".

Smith wanted statesmen guided by ideals but he warned of the dangers of trying to implement those policy ideals all at once. To do so would commit the error the "man of system" who is "often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it".

".. but like Solon, when he cannot establish the best system of laws, he will endeavour to establish the best that people can bear."

Max Weber: "Unbridled avarice is not in the least the equivalent of capitalism, still less of its spirit. Capitalism may actually amount to the restraint, or at least the rational tempering, of this irrational impulse."