Between Pietas and Usury: Dynamics of a Moral Economy in the Middle Ages

Tanja Skambraks ()
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Tanja Skambraks: Karl-Franzens-Universität

Chapter Chapter 4 in Reassessing the Moral Economy, 2023, pp 75-96 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter deals with the relationship between religion and economy in the Middle Ages, with a special focus on the operationalisation of the concept of moral economy. I argue that there are three interdependent levels characterising the premodern moral economy: economic ethics, canon law and economic practice. In the conceptual framework proposed, the processes of exchange and influence between these levels can be analysed using three analytical terms: (1) embeddedness, (2) innovations and (3) feedback. The applications presented here focus on the medieval theory of credit and interest (reflected in the canon law and sermons, treatises and regulations) as well as on the propagation and realisation of innovative economic thoughts linked to the Monti di Pietà (Christian pawnbroking houses) in late medieval Italy.

Keywords: Small-scale credit; Economic ethics; Franciscans; Usury; Middle Ages; Monti di Pietà (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-031-29834-9_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-29834-9_4

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