Early Business Ethics in Spain: The Salamanca School (1526--1614)

Business ethics is not a novelty: it has important antecedents, among which we find the Spanish "Salamanca School". Its most brilliant period was during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, a historical epoch when Spain was one of the principal centers of commerce in Europe. In thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Melé, Domènec (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer 1999
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 1999, Volume: 22, Issue: 3, Pages: 175-189
Further subjects:B Theology
B Human Development
B Market Economy
B Natural Law
B Profits
B business ethics history
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Summary:Business ethics is not a novelty: it has important antecedents, among which we find the Spanish "Salamanca School". Its most brilliant period was during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, a historical epoch when Spain was one of the principal centers of commerce in Europe. In this article, we present a panoramic view of business ethics as developed by this school and discuss its potential contributions to new developments in business ethics., The Salamanca School was primarily focused on action, yet ultimately oriented to the agent. The Salamanca School's authors were theologians seeking to harmonize faith, reason and social reality. Many of them were very well-acquainted with the business dynamics of their day and issued precise assessments of them. In their writings, they also considered fundamental aspects of the market economy (property, prices, monopolies, profit, etc.). Their moral reasoning follows the natural-law of Thomas Aquinas, but places greater emphasis on empirical data. In the context of a global economy, the Salamanca School's open, universal approach is especially worthy of consideration.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1006270025831