SCIENCE, RELIGION AND SOCIALISM 



was regarded not as an end in itself, but as the preparation for a fuller 

 life in Heaven, a fuller life which could not be entered into without 

 the passport of justice, temperance, and piety. It was the province of 

 theology, therefore, to regulate public economic affairs just as much 

 as those of individual devotion. The most important means by which 

 this was done were first, the principle of the just price, and, secondly, 

 the prohibition of usury. Every commodity had its just price, based 

 on the cost of its production, and allowing to its producer a margin 

 of profit sufficient for him to live in that degree of comfort which 

 was considered appropriate to his station. It was unchristian to force 

 prices up in a time of scarcity, and thus to take advantage of the 

 necessity of others; unchristian to allow prices to fall in time of glut, 

 and so defraud honest merchants. Usury was prohibited alike by civil 

 and canon law.^ And the names of many other long obsolete mis- 

 demeanours, such as regrating, forestalling and engrossing, remain to 

 show how the theologian systematised mediaeval economic tran- 

 sactions.^ 



What would happen to our present social structure, we might ask, 

 if by some miracle the mediaeval Church were to have full power 

 again, and all usury were prohibited, the principle of the just price 

 exacted, and the restriction of profits renewed ? We should, of course, 

 observe a very spectacular collapse. The Middle Ages had, in fact, 

 their own conception of collectivism, but it was fundamentally non- 

 equalitarian. Each group, ecclesiastical, military, or commercial, held 

 a distinct place in a system of social orders possessing different degrees 

 of wealth and social prestige. And although it was true that each order 

 had definite duties towards the other orders, not excluding even the 

 peasant basis, it was equally true that these obligations were frequently 

 unfulfilled. Still, mediaeval society was organic, rather than indivi- 

 dualistic and atomic. As Chaucer's Parson said: 



"I wot well there is degree above degree, as reason is, and skill 

 it is that men do their devgir thereas it is due, but certes ex- 

 tortions and despite of your underlings is damnable." 



^ Cf, W. Cunningham's Christian Opinion on Usury (Edinburgh, 1884). 



^ Regrating was the practice of buying goods in order to sell them again in the same 

 market at a higher price, and without adding to their value. Forestalling was the purchase 

 of goods on their way to the market, or immediately on their arrival, or before the 

 market had properly opened, in order to get them more cheaply. Engrossing was the 

 mediaeval counterpart of cornering, the buying up of the whole, or a large part, of the 

 stock of a commodity in order to force up the price. 



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