The German tradition in late medieval value theory

Abstract

According to canon law, merchandise cannot be lawfully sold ‘whole and unaltered’ at a profit. In the Middle Ages this principle was extended from physical improvement of goods by craftsmen to include merchants' improvement of goods by transportation and storage. These forms of improvement relate to supply. A tightly knit group of late German schoolmen developed this analysis by relating it by analogy to demand in terms of ‘improvement in estimation’ by the market. The juxtaposition of demand and supply factors in this analytical model foreshadows some fundamental principles of early modern value theory.