FRANCISCAN WEALTH FROM VOLUNTARY POVERTY TO MARKET SOCIETY
Giacomo Todeschini ~ translated by Donatella Melucci (2009)
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While not the "first economists," the early Franciscans approached the marketplace out of their rigorous Christian religiosity and showed clearly the necessary connection between morality and business. "In Franciscan Wealth, Giacomo Todeschini provides a critical and objective study of Franciscan economic theory. As promoters of a rigorous and evangelical poverty, the Franciscans were paradoxically led to investigate all forms of the economic life between that of extreme poverty and that of excessive wealth, distinguishing carefully between property and temporary possession and the use of economic goods. How are Christians to make an appropriate use of the goods of the earth? To respond to such a question Franciscans reflected on and wrote about the circulation of money, on the just establishment of prices, and on contracts and the regulation of the market, arguing for the importance of socially productive investment against the unproductive amassing of wealth in terms of property. In this context the figure of the working merchant who contributes to the well-being of citizens is viewed positively, while that of the property owner, or of the Lord of the manor, or of the aristocracy that preserves and multiplies wealth for itself, appeared to be sterile and negative. Franciscan reflection appears at the origin of much of European economic theory, emerging even earlier that the Protestant ethic studied by Max Weber." Published by Franciscan Institute, paperback, 209 pages. (Order 153-0 Price $30.00) |
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