Description: This book is a study in the history of economic thought. It deals with the economics of exchange, that is, with prices, wages and interest rates. Those who pay a certain price or interest rate, or work at a certain wage, may agree to do so because they are in economic need. They are thus in a sense compelled and not free to choose. This problem was first discussed by teachers in the medieval universities. This book follows the discussion from the Middle Ages to the present.
Review Quotes: "Langholm has shown that the original Scholastic analysis of the market process drew on Aristotelian and Roman law concepts of volition and free choice as the basis for justice in exchange. Realistic appraisals of need and institutions resulted i practical policies that qualified these premises, paralleling modern institutionalism. This provocative study implicitly demands further investigation of the ideological milieu that produced a naturalistic economics based on the specious Benthamite assumption of ubiquitous rationality." S. todd Lowry, Washington and Lee University