Modest building blocks: The state of the art of monopoly thinking at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period in the works of lawyers and theologians

Abstract

Summary

This article seeks to contribute to the growing current of legal historical literature on early modern commercial law. It examines the topic of monopolies and their prohibition in the Codex of Justinian (C. 4,59,2). Its purpose is to explore one aspect of the renewed interest in the topic among lawyers and theologians in the early 16th century, when trading corporations and authorities worldly and ecclesial caused a proliferation of monopolies. The aspect in question is the source material from the legal and theological tradition that early modern authors had at their disposal. Through analysing the printed editions of medieval works from Roman and canon law and from theology, this contribution sketches an image of scattered attention and a strong focus on guilds until the very last years of the Middle Ages. Only after 1450 do the roots of the notions that would dominate later debates come to the fore, and near exclusively in the works of moral theologians such as Konrad Summenhart.